Breitbart London’s Raheem Kassam blasted the BBC for asking him for interviews whilst continuing to refer to Breitbart News Network as ‘far right’, and said the broadcaster’s smears put his staff at risk of attack from Islamist and alt-left extremists.
Hosting Breitbart News Daily on Sirius XM Thursday morning, the London editor in chief told listeners he receives “almost every day” interview requests from the BBC.
“I want to frame this for you why I’m reading this [message] out. They call me – they call us – ‘far right‘, ‘extremist’, ‘ultra-conservative‘, all of these pejoratives.
Dear BBC producers,
Your channels report Breitbart as "extreme and fringe" while you blow up my phone with interview requests.
Get a clue.
— Raheem Kassam (@RaheemKassam) November 14, 2016
“They call us this on their website, they call us it in the news, they have commentators to come on and talk about us.
“But every single day they ask me to give up my time and appear on their news channels for free… I’m just not going to do it anymore.”
I don't get it. Why are BBC producers calling and texting me to help with their inauguration coverage when they call us fake news and worse?
— Raheem Kassam (@RaheemKassam) January 19, 2017
“They call us all sorts of names and then I get text messages like this,” said Mr. Kassam, who then proceeded to read out a text message from a BBC staffer (who had managed to confuse his last name with his first):
“‘Hello Mr. Raheem. I’m taking over from my colleague for an interview request. Would you be interested in being on our Hard Talk show? Happy to email you. Best, BBC Hard Talk.’
“Absolutely not!” Kassam declared.
Sorry @BBC but at LEAST until you stop calling us "far right", you don't get to request my expertise on anything… pic.twitter.com/EadM9l6x9f
— Raheem Kassam (@RaheemKassam) August 1, 2017
Addressing the taxpayer funded British broadcaster’s record of smearing the news website, Kassam asked: “Do you want to stop lying about us? Do you want to stop smearing us?
“By the way, you want to stop putting us in danger?
“Because at some point, some nutty Islamist who loves the BBC or some nutty leftist who loves the BBC is going to act on your lies and attack me or my staff,” he said.
“If you want to stop doing that, BBC, then I might think about helping you out. Then I might think about coming on your shows. Stop texting me while you’re smearing me.”
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