Channel Four's Unfunny "Joke"

I've come to sadly expect pretty much anything when I switch on TV. From watching a man commit suicide in Switzerland to seeing a pig being pleasured (I kid you not), broadcasters pretty much know no bounds. I could get rid of the TV, but that wouldn't stop the programmes being shown and what's worse, people actually watching them.

Keeping this in mind, I have to say that I am shocked - and this is not a word I use lightly - at Channel Four's decision to let Ahmedinejad, the vile, anti-Semitic, nuclear-crazed President of Iran deliver it's alternative Xmas message. Maybe naively, it didn't cross my mind that anyone would think of pulling this sick Xmas joke (as it's being referred to in the Media) - which. by its very nature seems to go against everything that Xmas is meant to be about.

Not being a Christian, I was brought up to believe that this very day was one of peace and goodwill to all men. I cannot see how this piece of human garbage could be seen to promote these ideals when he continually calls for the destruction of Israel, denies the Holocaust and builds his nuclear warheads as eagerly as a beaver making a dam across a river.

I could go on, but I think that Damian Thompson in the Telegraph does a better job of describing how utterly revolting this invitation is:

"Channel 4's decision to invite Holocaust revisionist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to deliver its "alternative Christmas message" is more than a sick seasonal prank: it's further evidence of the Left's schoolgirl infatuation with Islamic bigots.

Dorothy Byrne, head of news and current affairs at Channel 4, justifies her decision as follows: "As the leader of one of the most powerful states in the Middle East, President Ahmadinejad’s views are enormously influential. As we approach a critical time in international relations, we are offering our viewers an insight into an alternative world view."

Well, that's one way of describing a version of history in which the Jews are held responsible for most of the evil in the world.

The president of Iran is a Holocaust sceptic who, a couple of years ago, organised an academic conference on the subject at which a neo-Nazi produced models of a concentration camp (complete with toy train set) designed to show that Hitler's gas ovens did not exist.

His government's views on homosexuals are also robust, shall we say. Indeed, several Channel 4 executives would find themselves locked up if they followed their "degenerate lifestyle" in Iran.

But none of that matters to Channel 4 commissioning editors, because the Christians, Jews, gays and political dissidents being persecuted in the Islamic Republic are safely out of earshot: you can't hear their cries in Crouch End."

Oh yes, by the way, Happy Xmas everyone.