Jonathan Marcus wants us believe everything Human Rights Watch has to say about the “avoidable” deaths of civilians in Iraq. He seems happy to photocopy everything the HRW report has to say about American and Coalition tactics. Mr Marcus should read Steven den Beste’s devastating critique of HRW here before touting them as worthy of our trust. The trouble with the BBC approach is that HRW is a highly partisan, anti-war, anti-Bush organisation. Fairness and accuracy in reporting and analysis should dictate some mention of this by the BBC, but, alas, we hear only the voice of a parrot.
Parrot Watch.
Bookmark the permalink.
“HRW is a highly partisan, anti-war, anti-Bush organisation.”
Sounds like a perfect match for the BBC.
What’s the beef, exactly?
Somewhat OT;
Check out the story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/uk/3317169.stm ‘UK Hindus meet to discuss attacks’. More to the point, check out what’s missing. Nary a hint as to who is attacking Hindus. The organiser is allowed to say ‘Hindus had suffered worse religiously motivated violence than Jews in recent years’ – the implied jibe at Jews presumably compensating for the hint that the violence is not simply racial in nature. Elsewhere, the attackers are reffered to as ‘thugs’ even while noting that religious sites are a particular target – which don’t sound like simple thuggery to me. Somehow, I think the Beeb wouldn’t have been that cagey had the BNP been involved.
“… Steven den Beste’s devastating critique ”
I doubt that’s ever been said before.
Here’s a Den Beste joke…tasteful.
http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2003/06/Wherewereyouon911.shtml
John Simpson was harping on about HRW in the Sunday Telegraph today- he evidently holds them in great regard. He also had to admit making a factual error when he said recently that Winston Churchill ordered poisoned gas to be used on the Kurds many years ago, when in fact Churchill had ordered the use of tear gas. That’s just one more mistake to add to the long list. As they say at BBConline- ‘more soon’.
Pity den Beste wasn’t around at the time of Intifada 2. October, 2000.
There was Jennifer Anderson, from Jerusalem, describing how Israeli soldiers were firing on Palestinian stone throwers and on the screen behind her a view of the stone throwers along with armed men using the cover of trucks and walls to fire back “over” the heads of the stonethrowers.
HRW popped up on The Jeremy Vine Show on R2 at about 12:30 today. A debate between one of their drones and a bloke from the Heritage Foundation…. oops make that the ‘US Conservative think tank, the Heriatage Foundation’ – needless to say, HRW needed no Warning-Flag adjectives added to their introduction.