1. BobW said:

This is a great example of why I hate terms such as "right wing", "left wing", "conservative", "liberal", etc.

Little information is conveyed in these terms. Plus, some of the terms in the political lexicon have been changed. "Moderate" need not mean moderate any more. It could mean "undecided".

Recall the traditional Iowa farmer who's a Republican and the traditional Georgia farmer who's a Democrat.Now look at their policy positions on national agricultural issues.

The political labels can lend legitimacy. Iran's criminals clearly are outside the scope of the Western vocabulary. Iran is like Nigeria. A few political criminals stole the people's wealth.

Kol tuv,
BobW

2. kuhnkat said:

These terms are used in relativity mode. If they only mildy dislike you and may need to rehabilitate you (as in Iran attacks Israel they might want to make Ahmadinejad sympathetic while he is "eradicating the infestation in Palestine in support of the Freedom Fighter Palestinians") they call you Conservative. As they dislike you more you become Right Wing, Extreme right wing, right wing fundamentalist, and finally to NAZI.

As these terms have different associations with religion content and political agenda is gets especially confusing. According to them as you move right you move away from Democracy and to totalitarianism. Of course, at the same time according to them we are moving from mildy religious to fundamentalist to, uhh, anti-religion?

Again, all these terms are relative to their agenda at the time so this is a VERY loose relationship. Basically it is all about their advancing their agendas through propaganda. Trying to read the MSM under any other context will simply drive a reasonable, logical person f*cking BANANAS.

Might have something to do with why the MSM continues to hemorhage viewers/readers.

3. Leonard said:

According to the BBC you have to be associated with the IRA or the Basques ETA to qualify as a terrorist, if you simply blow up innocent civilians on buses and in market places you become a Militant such as Hamas. Arafat and the PLO were classed as moderates,and according to the journalists sympathies - you are either a Dove or a Hawk.
Journalists were even accused of breaking the BBCs code of impartiality after July 7th if they labeled AlQaida perpetrators terrorists.

Barbara Plett who cried when Arafats body was removed from Ramallah has finally been found in breach of the BBCs code of practice - but only on appeal, and has now been posted elsewhere. Orla Guerin who who accused the Israeli's of stealing Christmas when Islamic terrorists sought sanctuary in the Church of the Nativity in a calculated attempt to create a rift between the Jewish and Christian World was awarded an OBE and has also been posted elsewhere. Hopefully we should see a more balanced reporting on events in the future.

4. Gene said:

Hey trackbacks are not working guys!!! Have not worked for at least a week now...

I have a long post with charts about usage of these terms at http://mnblogger.com

"So if it is fair to say that conservative bloggers would minimally use the world right-wing to describe either themselves or another conservative, then it would be mainly liberal bloggers who use the term right-wing. And if that is the case, and the corollary of usage is true for the term left-wing, then it appears that for every post where a conservative calls some liberal a left-winger, there are 2 posts where a liberal calls a conservative a right-winger."

5. LeonR said:

If the current Iranian President is described by the BBC as a 'conservative' would they,using today's parlance,have called Hitler a 'moderate'in the 1930s?

6. kuhnkat said:

I think the BBC is still trying to ignore the links between the Islamofascists and the IRA. They have been strenuously keeping their eyes and ears closed to these links.

Now if they would ALSO hold their noses and mouths closed for about 10 minutes...