[Media-watch]

[YvonneMarshall]

Dear Mr Hanrahan,

I've just watched your report, on News 24, regarding the return of the remains of the 6 British Military Police to RAF Brize Norton this afternoon.

The bodies were returned early afternoon (while our Prime Minister was wrestling with Iain Duncan Smith over the punctuality of trains) -  you covered the ceremony live on News 24. The report I've just watched was broadcast at approx 8.15 p.m. Presumably you had plenty of time to decide what form your finally edited report(s) would take for the evening bulletins. With that in mind, I hope you will take a minute or so to consider this viewer's assessment of your considered, edited, objective commentary on an important event.

I did not tape this evening's report and cannot quote you exactly, but the concluding words of your report were to the effect that  '...there were no prayers...only symbols to express a nation's gratitude and...' 

The emboldened words are, I believe, accurate.

How dare you make such a statement ? 

I watched the repatriation ceremony this afternoon with many conflicting emotions, but 'gratitude' never once arose. Those six men were in Iraq following the orders of a govt which - everyone knows - was acting against the majority of public opinion in pursuing war.  A great many people in this country are capable of supporting our armed forces, but also objecting to their use for illegal ends. Your report this evening made no effort whatever to acknowledge that fact. Put bluntly - those men should not be dead because they should never have been there in the first place.

Was I the only viewer who felt gut-sorry for the families and friends of those men, tried to imagine how painful it would be if my own son was butchered by a mob as a result of being ordered to participate in an illegal invasion ? 

Was I the only viewer who wondered what the relatives and friends of those dead men might have wanted to say to the 'grateful' nation had you and your illustrious colleagues given them the chance ? 

Was I the only viewer who wondered why you neglected to comment on the presence of Mr Geoff Hoon at the ceremony ? I cannot speak for any of the deceased's relatives, but if my boy was being brought back to me in a flag-draped box because a cabal of careerist bastards had decided that the illegal invasion of another country was, in their considered opinion, 'the right thing to do', I know I would have had something to say to him, and I would've wanted the rest of the country to hear it.

The simple, if uncomfortable fact that no solid justification for the invasion has yet surfaced should have found its way into your summary of today's event. It is understandable that no such observations were made during live transmission of the ceremony, but any considered, objective overview of the event (e.g. the edited news packages for evening broadcast) should at least have attempted to place the sombre occasion in a fuller context which acknowledges the deep and general disquiet over this avoidable conflict. 

By what authority do you take it upon yourself to assume that an entire nation is 'grateful' that six outnumbered men were summarily executed by desperate people who, quite understandably, viewed them as aggressive invaders ? Does anyone review your scripts before you commit them to tape ? Did you honestly believe that such a contentious comment would not immediately draw reaction such as this ? 

To your credit, you did allude to the possibility that there may be more such ceremonies. Following the tough-talk from Jack 'Rambo' Straw today, there surely will be.  Given that you made much of the deceased being accorded 'equal dignity' upon their return, I hope that you will be present to issue further paeans on the nation's behalf as you cover the solemn repatriation of each and every UK citizen who is brought back from Iraq as a result of this unjustifiable aggression.

I'm sure thisis not the only notice of complaint you will et regarding your day's work, and hopefully you will view them collectively in due course, be able to calmly assess what you did. Yes, it sounded good, it was tear-jerking stuff.  But you are not a poet. 

You are a journalist.

So please, in future, as the bodies are being loaded into hearses, be more mindful of those who do not feel 'gratitude' so much as a deep and burning anger that so many lives, Iraqi and American as well as British, have been horribly wasted by this disgusting 'war'. British people from all walks of life took to the streets in millions to demonstrate fear and loathing of what Blair and his cohorts were doing - perhaps we always knew that they would do it anyway, but now, today, when we have every right to say, 'we told you so', the very least we can expect is that the BBC will not succumb to mindless heartstring-tugging jingoism.

Mr Hanrahan, you are a Senior Correspondent. Right now, when the BBC needs all the public support it can get, your platitudinous and offensive reporting can only provide further ammunition to the corporation's critics. Please do better.

Sincerely,

Ian Brotherhood


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