BBC political editor's praise for Tony Blair

The following quote, from BBC political editor Andrew Marr (BBC1 Ten O'Clock news, 9/4/2003) on the official "ending" of the Iraq war (when the statue of Saddam toppled) is a perfect example of what we mean by "media horseshit". Marr is no doubt sincere, but his report consists almost entirely of personal opinions, speculations and abstractions. The only verifiable "facts" (see bold-highlighted section) could have been emphatically refuted as easily in 2003 as they can be today.

[We also comment on this quote in our page on "stupidising"]

"[At Downing Street] the main mood is of unbridled relief… it draws a line under what, before the war, had been a period of – well, a faint air of pointlessness, almost, was hanging over Downing Street. There were all these slightly tawdry arguments and scandals. That is now history.

"Mr Blair is well aware that all his critics out there in the party and beyond aren't going to thank him (because they're only human) for being right when they've been wrong. And he knows that there might be trouble ahead, as I said. But I think this is very, very important for him. It gives him a new freedom and a new self-confidence.

"He confronted many critics. I don't think anybody, after this, is going to be able to say of Tony Blair that he's somebody who is driven by the drift of public opinion or focus groups or opinion polls. He took all of those on. He said that they would be able to take Baghdad without a bloodbath, and that in the end the Iraqis would be celebrating. And on both of those points he has been proved conclusively right. And it would be entirely ungracious, even for his critics, not to acknowledge that tonight he stands as a larger man and a stronger prime minister as a result."

(Andrew Marr, BBC1, April 9, 2003 – our bold emphasis)