So the adjudication admits the Mirror was partisan, but allows this as this is the role of newspapers. It also accepts the Mirror’s attempt to allow Mr Hannan (third thread today he’s appeared on – he is taking over the site!) right of reply to correct the perceived misrepresentation was sufficient and correct.

Nowhere did Mr Hannan complain ‘on race’ (a strange choice of phrase). Nowhere does this prove any racism, and indeed it appears that the PCC agreed that the Mirror did distort Mr Hannan’s position, but within the bounds of partisanship expected in politics (especially of the tabloids?), but that he certainly had a right of reply.

From Sunny H

”Excellent! Daniel Hannan’s complaint against Daily Mirror on Obama rejected by PCC”

I read Daniel Hannan’s original piece on his Telegraph site.
The one that was titled ”Jimmy Carter accuses Barack Obama’s critics of racism”.

Bill Clinton said of Obama ”this guy would have been bringing us coffee” (or something). But did he mean it the way it was spun by Hannity’s programme on Fox?
I think there are several ways of viewing comments like these.

Fox news has been going mental this week about Nevada senator Harry Reid and his ”light skined black man” and ”negro accent” comments about Obama.

Fox were spnning this story shamlesly. And I wondered if the left who went for Hannan, might not be doing something similar.

I’m not agreeing with Hannan, I just think it takes more time to work through every nuance of these stories than (perhaps the Daily Mirror) has time to take time for.

John McWhorter said this about Harry Reid.
http://www.tnr.com/blogs/john-mcwhorter

From all I’ve seen of what he said, he was suggesting that Obama’s background is likley to nark of many in the US. It would here too. Was he agreeing with that? If he was then fair enough – but if he was merely suggesting people would feel that way and not agreeing with it then its just commentary.

Should he instead say ‘all in America worship Obama’ in order not to see any negative views be cast as his own?

I maintain Britain is not ready to vote in a non-white person to be PM. Does this me I personally wouldn’t vote that way? Or that my personal view is that a non-white person couldn”t represent me? No. No it does not. That’s merely my view (correct or wring) about the situation in the country as a whole.

Good news but Huw Jones’ comment seems a little off colour and inaccurate in a piece about careful use of words.

Watchman (of stories relating to Hannan, who has always featured at Lib Con as something of a bete noire), you do know Hannan’s appeal was not upheld don’t you?

Chris

Exotic is not a good word to use, comes with too many connotations, esp. in the mouth of a Tory and Boris’s pickerninnines springs to mind.

Pointing out that that Obama’s background will nark racists is not what Hannan did and I’m sure it narks racists here too. It read like justifying those racists feelings, which I’m sure Hannan doesn’t share and I doubt very much he is a racist but he is an appeaser of the right in the US.

“Should he instead say ‘all in America worship Obama’ in order not to see any negative views be cast as his own?”

No, that would have been daft.

“It read like justifying those racists feelings,”

I can’t say it read like that to me at all. I’m no fan of Hannan but the Mirror’s treatment of him was unfair.

There is no occasion to despair; the Labour Party can keep both balls in the air at the same time: The Immigrants’ Friend and The Unswerving DEfender of the White Working Class.

Look:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/janetdaley/7005970/Our-immigrants-success-is-not-down-to-Labour.html

See? Don’t you feel better already.

I think that Daniel Hannan was maligned in the Mirror article.

But it’s a tabloid. Maybe you have to expect a tabloid to play fast and loose with the words their political foes speak. (And not go complaining about it).

This was in the Mirror article:

Labour’s Parmjit Dhanda said: “Hannan’s remarks are a disgrace. He needs to wake up to the modern world.

“It’s excusing racism. He is implying if you have what he calls an ‘exotic’ background you can be treated differently.

That’s not the way I read it. Would Parmjit Dhanda understand that sections of Indian society would probably have difficulty with having a muslim prime minister?

Or would he say that to even suggest such a thing meant that you personally thought the same thing too? (ie: that for India to have a muslim prime minister would be a bad thing and that you were against it).

And the opening lines of the Mirror article (because of what Hannan is said to have implied) are the same kind of crap that liberals complain that the right are always doing.

”David Cameron was dragged into the US race row yesterday after one of his rising stars said that he understood the anti-Barack Obama feelings.”

Hmm..

1) Hannan..that isn’t an anglo-saxon or celtic name….is he Jewish? I think he is, so does he see himself as ‘exotic’…?

@ Chris

But we’re not America and we don’t have the history America has. Hannan isn’t very bright, in fact he is very dumb.

America belongs to the NATIVE INDIAN AMERICAN’S, in fact, they are ethnically and genetically closer to the Chinese but aaanyway, who cares? And furthermore, the country is FULL of immigrants!!? The whole concept of America was this ‘new land’. For godsake!

And they brought the African’s to the country to work as slaves for chrissakes!

So it’s pure racism.

In the UK, we don’t have that history and depsite the fact that the UK was involved in Colonisation, Slavery and all that wonderful free-market take over from the 50′s with the US, you don’t even get taught this at most schools and even if you did, some people just don’t care.

So would a black prime minister work in the UK? No. Would it ever? No. How would it work? Well, if the UK started engaging in more honest dialogue than mayb people can begin to understand the complex history-past and modern of the British empire but that’s not going to happen for a while…though thank god we have the internet!

So would a black prime minister work in the UK? No. Would it ever? No.

As I recall, quite a few people said the same about the American presidency before Obama came along.

I don’t think a black prime minister in Britain is so far-fetched, though I’m struggling to name any likely candidates from the current front bench. “Prime Minister David Lammy” doesn’t really have that ring to it.

@ Zarathustra

But we’re not the same people and we don’t have the same history. Alot of liberal guilt went into Obama being President…..

That, and a lot of people thought he’d be better at the job than John McCain.

Sometimes people vote for a black guy because they think he’s the preferable candidate rather than anything to do with hangups about race. I think I heard that it’s called “equality”.

@Zarathustra

Well as a black young lady growing up in the UK, particularly in a really blue state, I’d have to disagree dude to personal observations and personal attacks…

But hey, you being right would mean a lot to me.

I don’t know why Hannan went to the PCC (which could probably not have found otherwise unless it wants to adjudicate against almost everything in the Express and the Mail).

He had already been cleared in this instance by his ideological foes at the Fabian blog Next Left, which is surely authoritative.
http://www.nextleft.org/2009/09/in-defence-of-daniel-hannan.html