Stan Rosenthal
Stan Rosenthal is a retired civil servant who lives in Lindfield in West Sussex. [1] He has written a number of letters to newspapers supportive of Tony Blair and his policies. For example, shortly after the London bombings of July 2005 he wrote to the Independent stating: 'Those who say that the London bombings are the price we are paying for our part in the Iraq war should reflect on the possibility that this is the price we are paying for their hate-creating anti-war propaganda.' [2] That November he wrote a letter to the Observer arguing that:
Those who are calling for Tony Blair to stand down in the face of the insurgency within Labour ranks are like the faint hearts who demand the withdrawal of coalition troops from Iraq every time a terrorist outrage occurs. Rebels are not generally deterred by appeasing gestures.
No, Blair must stay on as long as it takes to see the reforms through. Any other course would strengthen the anarchic forces of Labour fundamentalism to the detriment of the UK. [3]
In February 2010 Rosenthal created the Ban Blair Baiting website to deflect growing criticism of Tony Blair for alleged war crimes. The website was created on 10 February 2010 and is registered to Rosenthal. [4] It lists John Rentoul, chief political commentator for the Independent on Sunday and biographer of Tony Blair, as its spokesman. [5]
Ban Blair Baiting has set up an online petition, taken out a full page advertisement in the New Statesman and has issued complaints to the BBC alleging bias against Tony Blair. A complaint from Rosenthal led to an official reprimand for BBC presenter Jeremy Paxman. Paxman had written an article for the Guardian in November 2010 as part of the paper’s ‘The 10 photographs of the decade’ series. In the article Paxman referred to ‘the initial lies that took us to war’. [6] The BBC’s Director of News, Helen Boaden, replied to Rosenthal stating that, ‘we do not know the truth about what lies may or may not have been told, we cannot attribute such a motive to Tony Blair’s government and making such an unequivocal statement gives a partial impression.’ She said she would ‘remind [Paxman] of the need to appear impartial at all times while retaining his much admired and valued iconoclastic style’ [7]
Rosenthal is (or has been) a member of the Labour Party and the Labour left pressure group Compass. [8]
Notes
- ↑ 'Probe into "vile joke" about Queen sparked by Sussex man', The Argus (Brighton), 21 October 2009
- ↑ Letter, Independent, 15 July 2005
- ↑ Letter: Blair Must Stay, Observer, 20 November 2005
- ↑ Domain Tools Whois Search of http://www.banblairbaiting.com, conducted 18 February 2011
- ↑ Ban Blair Baiting Campaign [Accessed 18 February 2011]
- ↑ Jeremy Paxman, ‘Jeremy Paxman's photograph of the decade’, Guardian, 13 November 2010
- ↑ cited in John Rentoul, ‘Jeremy Paxman: “Inappropriate, sneering, partial”’, Independent Blogs, 13 February 2011
- ↑ 'Letters: A moral compass for Labour's leaders, Guardian, 14 June 2005
