Daniel Antal, a Hungarian economist, wrote in regarding Brian Micklethwait‘s article “Give me a definition of racist”:
I had been busy trying to get an interview appointment with Pim Fortuyn, the recently assassinated controversial Dutch politician whom I formerly recommended as a new type of Liberal to listen to for Samizdata readers. I am also working on a paper which shall analyse his political manifesto, which has a shortened version available in English.
Well, should be clear, Fortuyn was a nationalist. Fortuyn had similar views on Islam as Rushdie or Naipaul, although he expressed them in populist political language. This was mistaken for racism by some journalists. You have cited the Simpson interview, which terminated on BBC when Fortuyn asked Simpson about his definition on racism. Later Fortuyn sent Simpson away for “showing disrespect to him” and did not allow the interview to be finished. However, today’s Independent have revealed the last sentence of the interview, clearly cut a couple of seconds on BBC before the end. It goes:
“Give me a definition of racism. You don’t know what a racist [is] because you have Negroes who are Muslims , you have yellow men who are Muslims, you have white men who are Muslims, so how can you connect the Muslim religion and culture with race? Then you are very stupid, Mr. Simpson.”
Of course regarding this example that Daniel Antal mentions, one can speculate why the interview was cropped where it was. To me it seems obvious that it suited certain people to have Pim Fortuyn dismissed as an incoherent fascist who is immune to rational discourse, rather than someone who asked inconvenient questions that the great and good in the media do not have answers for.
For another example of this, Sean Gabb‘s recent exchange on Radio 4 with Charles Moore, Editor of The Daily Telegraph was edited to the point of altering it beyond recognition. Much in the way Stalin would have former Bolsheviks airbrushed out of photographs when they did not continue to represent The Party Line, it seems that British national state media simply edits unwelcome dissent out before broadcasting. It would seem that when the true ‘loyal opposition’ actually dares to oppose, that cannot be allowed to sully the airwaves. They would rather give voice to Charles Moore, that way there is less risk of any real and intellectually rigorous dissent being heard.
At least Brian Micklethwait seems to have the contacts to actually get his voice live and unedited on talk radio shows to put his unalloyed, full fat, non-diet libertarian perspectives out on the statist clogged airwaves.
