Who is Nile Gardiner?

I realize that many people reading this blog will have never heard of him, but the baby-faced Mr Gardiner likes to think that he’s one of the most important people on the planet. Gardiner, a former policy advisor to Thatcher, is the director of the (surprise, surprise) Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom (sic). By default he is also a member of The Heritage Foundation where he makes a point of telling us that he has a “PhD”. If his blogs in the Telegraph are anything to go by, it’s difficult to see exactly how this man was awarded a PhD in the first place…unless it was in Moonie Studies.

Here’s a snippet from his profile

His key areas of specialization include: the Anglo-American “special relationship,” the United Nations, post-war Iraq , and the role of Great Britain and Europe in the U.S.-led alliance against international terrorism and “rogue states,” including Iran . He was recently named one of the 50 most influential Britons in the United States by the London Daily Telegraph .

Ah, the “special relationship”. The “Transatlantic bruderschaft“.

Gardiner is stuck in the Obama-bashing groove, as most of his blogs tend to be about Obama and how this horrible “leftist” will drag the US down the path of ‘socialism’. I’m not a huge fan of Obama but I know bullshit when I see it and Obama is no socialist.  Here’s a snippet from Gardiner’s latest offering.

The president’s refusal to reverse the Big Government approach that has been the hallmark of the first two years of his administration might be playing well to a shrinking liberal audience but isn’t being well received in Middle America. There is no real sign that the president has a clear plan for creating jobs and revitalising the economy, other than the tired old formula of spending more taxpayers’ money, a failed strategy which clearly didn’t succeed in 2009 and 2010.

This is the sort of thing he produces for Fox News .

Here he is in the Telegraph defending Fox News while taking a swipe at Obama at the same time.

The White House’s extraordinary assault on the Fox News Channel will end in tears – and not for Rupert Murdoch, Fox’s owner. The Obama administration has embarked on a high-risk strategy of shooting the messenger, in effect blaming its plummeting poll ratings on alleged political bias at the number one 24-hour cable news network. As Anita Dunn, the Mao-quoting White House communications director put it in aninterview with The New York Times:

“Mao-quoting”? Hold on, there’s more!

Fox News has succeeded spectacularly in racing ahead of its rivals in the cable news market, notably CNN and MSNBC. Its evening shows – such as the O’Reilly Factor, Glenn Beck and Hannity – pull in several million viewers compared to just hundreds of thousands on Fox’s competitors. Fox offers a highly opinionated, fast-paced and entertaining brand of political debate that includes all sides of the political aisle. The top hosts may be largely conservative (though not necessarily Republican), but the guests frequently are not, creating an adversarial and combative arena that until recently was a rarity in American news coverage.

Fox “includes all sides of political aisle”? What dear Nile doesn’t mention is how the the ‘other side’ is routinely used for target practice by the likes of Hannity and O’Reilly. Fox News, as we all know, is neither fair nor balanced and should be sued on the grounds of false advertising.

Here’s Gardiner being interviewed by former blogger, Iain Dale

I noticed on his recent blog for the Telegraph that someone had made a comment about his association with Sun Myung Moon. The comment was removed. What is Mr Gardiner so afraid of? Is he ashamed of his association with the ‘Reverend’ Moon?

The Unification Church (Moonies) provided the funds to set up the Washington Times, which was St Ronnie’s favourite newspaper.  And yes, Gardiner has written for the Washington Times too.

Here is a list of Moonie front groups. It’s a pretty long list.