Award-winning Indy journalist Johann Hari has put right-wing Mail attack dog Richard Littlejohn to the sword on his own Sky News show. Hari tore into Littlejohn for spreading lies which the BNP feed on, his ignorance over asylum seeker benefits and BNP leader Nick Griffin's description of him as his “favourite journalist”.
This article is about a video that is a few years old, but was uploaded to YouTube yesterday, and is definitely worth viewing; timeless and priceless
Watch below to see award-winning Indy journalist Johann Hari put right-wing Mail attack dog Richard Littlejohn to the sword on his own Sky News show. Hari tears into Littlejohn for spreading lies which the BNP feed on, his ignorance over asylum seeker benefits and BNP leader Nick Griffin’s description of him as his “favourite journalist”.
Hari says of the rise of the BNP:
“I do think journalists like you have to accept some responsibility for this. Nick Griffin described you as his ‘favourite journalist’…
“The fact remains the same lies the BNP peddle, you peddle in your column every week, it is a fact that in this country, a single asylum seeker gets paid £33 a week, a third below the poverty level according to Oxfam… You don’t know your facts, every week you describe asylum seekers as being, and this is a quote from you, ‘showered with benefits’.
“In your novel ‘To Hell in a handcart’, which was accurately described by my colleague David Aaranovitch as a ‘400-page recruiting pamphlet for the BNP’, you describe a single asylum seeker receiving £117 a week. They receive 33, you propagate anti-asylum seeker lies just as surely as this man.”
The other man being convited football hooligan and BNP thug Jason Douglas, who shouted racist abuse at Leyton Orient FC; when Hari points this out, Douglas menacingly replies:
“Johann, you’re stepping on very thin ice here.”
Watch the discussion in full:
As one of the YouTube commenters says:
“Lovely to see two eejits turned into stammering f***wits. Well done JH…”
33 Responses to “Johann Hari skewers Richard Littlejohn on his own show”
Mr. Sensible
Not surprised to see someone from the Daily Mail carrying those sorts of views…
richardakenny
RT @f8vnz: Hari vs Littlejohn http://bit.ly/9UAcOw old but gold
Stuart
Thought Hari came across a bit smug when talking to the BNP bloke, but the point he made about Littlejohn’s articles, that they propagate certain lies about immigrants and asylum seekers which creates feelings and opinions that the BNP then feed on, seems fair enough to me. Hari doesn’t call him racist or any other such names, just points to some of the things he’s written which are likely to create support for BNP policy.
Andy
“Whoever posted this had edited it to mislead people.” I posted it, and it is unedited – this is exactly as it went out live on Sky News.
Anon E Mouse
Mr.Sensible – Richard Littlejohn didn’t work for The Daily Mail at the time.
Not that that would be a crime, look at it’s readership but I dislike the Mail because of the editor’s links with that useless Gordon Brown.
Anyway the piece here is taken out of context – I remember watching the item and being surprised at just how useless Johann Hari was. Nothing changed there then…