Michael Moore Award: BBC/ Lonely Planet Guide to USA

Here's a quote for you:

"Bush really hasn't done much when it comes to breaking down the preconceived notions of Americans as greedy, myopic, pompous cretins..."

[Intake of breath].

"The president had never been to Europe before taking office, his disregard for immigrants has been shocking and the lengths he's been willing to go for oil seem boundless."

Where do you think those words come from?  They certainly could have come direct from Michael Moore himself.   They actually come from the latest Lonely Planet tourists' guide to the USA.  British Conservative MP Greg Hands recently urged folk to pay more attention to the political bias of travel guides.  He was right to do so.  The Lonely Planet Guide was recently purchased by the BBC.  Why is an "impartial" public service broadcaster publishing guidebooks that surreptitiously endorse the "notion" that Americans are "pompous cretins"?  Why is the BBC publishing the idea that George W Bush has a "disregard for immigrants" when he upset the rank-and-file of his party by seeking to make it easier for illegal immigrants to find a path to citizenship.  The introduction to the US guidebook is full of attacks on the religious beliefs of Americans and its alleged insularity.

AmericaInTheWorld.com will be regularly publishing nominations for our Michael Moore Award For Anti-Americanism.  If you have suggestions please get in touch.

Comments

[Matthew Dear]

"greedy, myopic, pompous cretins..."

How ON EARTH can anybody (whatever their politics) think that this is an appropriate thing to publish about anybody else - let alone an entire class of some 300 millions people, even if there is a casual use of a transferred epithet in a vain attempt to make the comment deniable?

Staggering. I think that the editors of Loney Planet must be pompous cretins...

[JP Floru]

Can somebody enlighten me about whether the claim that Bush never was in Europe before his election is actually true? About four years ago I was at a restaurant in Pompei and saw a photo on the wall of Bush Sr and Bush Jr at the restaurant - apparently quite an old photo.

[YourNameHere]

More anti British, anti BBC dogma.

I nonimate this blog for the Gerry Adams Anti British Award.

[Dorian Grape]

'in 1979 the Brits elected matronly Margaret Thatcher to come and mop up their mess for them.

Thatcher broke the unions, privatised national industries, established a meritocracy, sent a flotilla to the Falklands and polarised British society.'

The BBC Lonely Panic is equally as offensive about good old Blighty.

[Dorian Grape]

'More anti British, anti BBC dogma.'

That’ll be more anti-English/American drivel from a public funded corporation that is institutionally incapable of seeing beyond the windowless padded cell of sanctimonious, prig-headed, self-righteousness.

[sylvia]

I totally support you - but I do wish you were not "headquartered" in London:)

[Tony H]

Quote of the day goes to Matthew Dear at 08.21 who asks:

'"greedy, myopic, pompous cretins..."

'How ON EARTH can anybody (whatever their politics) think that this is an appropriate thing to publish about anybody else'

And then in the next sentence goes on to say:

'...I think that the editors of Loney Planet must be pompous cretins...'

Brilliant!

Posted by: Matthew Dear | September 04, 2008 at 08:21 AM

[PC]

And this, from the Falklands guide:

"The waiting period for an official handover proved too lengthy for Argentina's itchy-fingered military junta, and in April 1982 they invaded the Falklands and set up outposts in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It was an incredibly badly-timed move - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was going into an election year and faltering badly in the popularity polls. A little war and tabloid patriotism was just what her campaign needed."

[passing leftie]

preconceived notions of Americans as greedy, myopic, pompous cretins...

You don't have a great command of English, do you? "Preconceived" means " (of an idea or opinion) formed beforehand especially without evidence or through prejudice" - not an accurate representation.

As usual, you are conflating the intense and fully deserved unpopularity of the current regime (shared by most Americans) with a dislike of Americans.

[Dorian Grape]

Howdy Doody Passing Leftie.

'You don't have a great command of English, do you?'

That'll be the Loony Planet guide then. Where did what the quote did come from so it did.

Methinks you just had a blue on blue or friendly fire episode with your own mateys at Leftieland.

[Freedom to Prosper]

Don't loose any sleep over the BBC it is totally out of control and has been run by Moscow since the 1930s. I have been following the American election and what a feast it is turning out to be. This is democracy in action. Keep up the good work and best wishes to you all.

[Malcolm Dunn]

I really don't see why you chose to publish this Tim. It's not as if Lonely Planet has any influence with anybody and will just encourage the anti British ranters who sadly inhabit this blog.
The primary audience of Lonely Planet guides are backpacking students who if they're visiting America are likely to be well disposed to the USA before they arrive and will certainly be well disposed to Americans by the time they leave.
People buy Lonely Planet for its travel advice (which if you're on a tight budget is pretty good) rather than its political opinions which have always been drivel.
I would hope that now you've published this you will publish something on Hollywood's (a far more influential body than Lonely Planet)portrayal of the British (and English in particular). We've gone from being either too posh/snobbish for words or all cockney sparrow Dick Van Dyke type characters to the current situation where British actors regularly portray evil criminals and Britain is portrayed as incomptent at best. Still waiting to see the first anti IRA film come out of there.

[Joe Otten]

The implication is clearly that the view of America is preconceived and false. The quote is saying that America is much better than Bush. And I would agree with that, as would most Americans.

If this website is pushing the line that America is no better than George Bush, then it is just another sickening example of anti-Americanism. Whose side are you on?

[Ross]

It's a fairly bizarre attack too, since when have either Bush or Americans in general been conceived of as pompous? There are a lot of criticisms that could be levelled at Bush, but calling him pompous is like calling John Prescott an elitist.

[AM]

Lonely Planet is free to publish what the hell it likes in a free market. I don't like its obviously leftist politics, but then I buy the guides for the information, not for the philosophy.

If you are concerned about the effects of its bias on impressionable young backpackers, stop whining about it and write an unbiased guide yourself.

If a group of left wingers want to publish nonsense they are free to do so. The correct response in a free society is not to bang on about how shocking it is. Anyone truly concerned should publish competing information and try to convince people to buy it.

[Matthew Dear]

Tony H @ 11:02 - I thank you. (Takes a bow.)

[Andrew Morrison]

The book says about the Falklands:

"The waiting period for an official handover proved too lengthy for Argentina's itchy-fingered military junta, and in April 1982 they invaded the Falklands and set up outposts in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It was an incredibly badly-timed move - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was going into an election year and faltering badly in the popularity polls. A little war and tabloid patriotism was just what her campaign needed."

Shouldn't that read:

"It was an incredibly badly-timed move - General Galtieri was NOT going into an election this year or any other year but was faltering badly in the popularity polls. A little war and tabloid patriotism was just what his dictatorial rule needed."

The streets of Havana are paved with gold, and North Korea is the land of milk and honey, don't you know? I read it in a Lonely Planet book.

[syn]

If Michael Moore is the poster boy for the for their Lonely Planet of international hoity-toity snobs then their community is fattened with slobs.

[James Smith]

Does stuff like this really, truly matter?

While sporting the moniker "passing leftie" would ordinarily cause me to dismiss anything someone writes - the result of ample exposure to their quality of thought - he/she is on the mark that the cited text does characterize these as preconceived notions.

The slaps at Bush are fairly ignorant but they are certainly right that it is a perception which fuels the previously alluded to preconceptions.

One would almost be under the impression that in 1998 the Clinton administration didn't mass troops, choose that time to criticise Bush the elder for not going in and taking Hussein out in the first war in spite of the fact that it would have exceeded the UN mandate, bomb the hell out of Iraq and then back down after "strongly-worded UN resolutions" which emboldened Saddam about the world's lack of resolve and resulted in Bush having to begin the same process all over again a few years hence.

It is incredibly disingenuous to suggest European anti-Americanism is simply the result of Bush but that is the kind of dishonesty which is the stock and trade of the left.

[Nick Vaughan]

That is appalling. No such guidebook for me when I head over to help out the McCain campaign!

Say the BBC does continue in its current form beyond the next charter review, would Peter then be more comfortable if the Beeb got rid of its highly profitable 'BBC Worldwide' arm (who bought the guides)? Or rather, how would one control what they bought/not bought if it did remain?

The Beeb's answer for buying the guides or anything else lefty would always be that 'it was in the economic interests of the company'...(whether it was or not)

[Montjoie]

I nominate for the ex-President's division, Jimmy Carter

[Harry]

You should read the Lonely Planet Guides, theyre ridiculous. they tell you what to say when your having sex in different languages! Honestly they translate words like "faster" "slower" and "easy tiger!"

[Karen]

No country is more Anti-American than America herself.

http://virgomonkey.wordpress.com/2008/08/13/americas-self-critical-nature-in-the-media-goes-unnoticed-all-too-often/

[Big Boy]

Previously posted: "More anti British, anti BBC dogma."

IF THE SHOE FITS, WEAR IT.

[Jim]

A suggestion: post reviews with quotes to the Amazon / Barnes & Noble reviews...