I have long given up on the BBC for 'impartial' and factual etc. news, and indeed most MSM. Yesterday there was yet another instance of BBC bovine manure. The early afternoon (BST) news on the BBC News channel, when reporting on the death of Harry Belafonte, referred to him as 'The King of Calypso'. This is an absolute outrage and an insult to anybody with even a smidgen of a Trinidadian/Caribbean background!

Belafonte never was any kind of calypsonian. Calypso aka Kaiso is most deeply rooted in Trinidad and Tobago, but has also spread to some of the former British colonies of the Eastern Caribbean such as Barbados. It is a proud tradition in which all songs are normally written and performed, or even improvised in the 'extempo' branch of the tradition, by the calypsonian himself (or, these days, the odd female calypsonian, herself). In its purest form, calypso is political and social criticism and comment.

So, Belafonte certainly was no kind of calypsonian.

Belafonte was, at best, a rip-off merchant who stole other people's material and presented it as if it were his own. A competent singer, he catered principally to the US American white middle classes. He also happened to have a chip the size of Mt. Everest on his shoulder, and to mention him as a civil rights activist - and thereby in effect associating him with giants like Stokely Carmichael, Malcom X, Angela Davis, et al - arguably is a further insult.

At the very least, the BBC should, in all subsequent reports on the death of Belafonte, have issued an apology and retraction in respect of the 'King of Calypso' statement. Shame on you, BBC!