28 Responses to You can’t say BBC reporters are heartless.

  1. Susan says:
    November 1, 2004 at 4:21 am

    How many tears has Barbara Plett for the children that Arafat has murdered?

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  2. theghostofredken says:
    November 1, 2004 at 1:14 pm

    Or Sharon. It was very strange article whichever you look at it.

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  3. Martin says:
    November 1, 2004 at 2:53 pm

    Vomit churning bile from the BBC as usual. She’ll be wanting Arafats babies next.

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  4. Otis says:
    November 1, 2004 at 3:18 pm

    Pass the sick bag, someone…

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  5. Anonymous says:
    November 1, 2004 at 3:44 pm

    “Or Sharon”

    Looking for a middle ground, aren’t we?
    If one is a murderer, let’s claim the other one is a murderer too. That way they both are extremists while we stand for objective moderation.

    There’s only one way to look at it:
    That article ( and the one who wrote it) are disgusting. It is the embodiment of bias – the slut doesn’t even try to conceal it. And to think that people are forced to pay for this crap!

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  6. Susan says:
    November 1, 2004 at 4:24 pm

    If Arafat croaks I don’t think I can stand the huge wave of sentimental tripe that will appear in the MSM about the passing of the Great Warrior for Peace. Perhaps the BBC will have a memorial service and invite in the public to mourn along with themselves?

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  7. James says:
    November 1, 2004 at 5:08 pm

    “Perhaps the BBC will have a memorial service and invite in the public to mourn along with themselves”

    Then again, maybe not, as he will no longer be inclined toward kidnapping jounalists who disagree with him and then sending bits of their bodies to other journos on the Middle East beat? Who knows, maybe everything will change with his passing. Maybe he’s been getting good press because of the implicit threat if he doesn’t get good press?

    Israelis (e.g. Sharon) tend not kidnap journalists when crossed.

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  8. theghostofredken says:
    November 1, 2004 at 6:00 pm

    James: ” Israelis (e.g. Sharon) tend not kidnap journalists when crossed.” No, just shooting them does the trick.

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  9. Michael Gill says:
    November 1, 2004 at 10:20 pm

    “How many tears has Barbara Plett for the children that Arafat has murdered?”

    Listening to her dry-eyed reporting of today’s homicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Radio 4 I’d say that Arafat is likely the only one she weeps over.

    Imagine if a BBC reporter admitted weeping at Reagan’s funeral – they would have been pilloried without mercy by the Guardianista.

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  10. Natalie Solent says:
    November 1, 2004 at 11:01 pm

    Too right. Barbara Plett represents distilled essence of BBC weirdness. All the multifarious evil in the world to cry about, all its un-numbered victims, and she weeps for this decrepit old babykiller.

    Just what is it about dictators that so appeals to these people?

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  11. PJF says:
    November 2, 2004 at 1:06 am

    Just what is it about these people that makes dictators so appealing to them?
    .

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  12. Roxana Cooper says:
    November 2, 2004 at 4:16 am

    George Orwell, of all people, had an answer to that. He put it down to ‘cowardice and a worship of power that is not far from cowardice’ (probably not a word perfect quote but close).

    Orwell, a deeply committed socialist, was trying to explain why so many of his fellow travellers had been negative about WWII and were now, (this was back in the fifties) worshipping Stalin.

    According to him the defeatism was due in part to an inability to face the strain of a long war – and quickest way to end the strain was to lose. And to a degree of disaffection that made it natural for the ‘intelligentsia’ to side with the enemies of their country. But above all to a viscereal admiration for sheer, brute power.

    The United States, though powerful, will never get the kind cringing worship the Soviet Union and now Islamo-fascism receives because we’re not brutal enough.

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  13. Roxana Cooper says:
    November 2, 2004 at 4:16 am

    Orwell’s contemporaries believed Nazi Germany was too strong to defeat. Their children believed the Soviet Union was too strong to defeat. And their grandchildren now believe that terrorism and Islamic extremism are undefeatable…which fills me with hope given the liberal left’s predictive track record!

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  14. chevalier de st george says:
    November 2, 2004 at 8:08 am

    Oriana fallaci had no problems in in seeing through Arafats’ dishonesty, but then who could compare her to Ms Plett?
    However much Plett might hold anti Israeli views, her support of arafat shows that she is also strongly anti palestinian.
    No man has done more to oppress, indoctrinate and persecute these people than the old stalinist/marxist himself

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  15. David Field says:
    November 2, 2004 at 9:54 am

    Leaving aside the pro=-Palestinian bias issue, isn’t it just extremely unprofessional for a journalist to admit to such feelings. How can they claim to give an objective account of anything if they can admit to emotion getting the better of them.

    David

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  16. Natalie Solent says:
    November 2, 2004 at 10:26 am

    The thing that worries me is less that she admits to the emotion but that she has it in the first place. (Though your point about letting it get the better of her is also true.)
    Not that feeling sorry for others is bad, but there is something bad about using up one’s limited store of tears on Arafat when there are other worthier objects – including his victims.

    [Shakes head, bewildered at it all] I guess I’m repeating myself to an audience who already largely agree.
    What Susan said!

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  17. James says:
    November 2, 2004 at 12:19 pm

    Ghost,
    Just curious, who did the Israelis deliberately shoot to stifle criticism among the general Middle Eastern press?

    Regards,
    James

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  18. theghostofredken says:
    November 2, 2004 at 3:09 pm

    “We have noted the bombings of Palestinian radio and TV stations in the West Bank and Gaza over the last year; the three journalists killed and dozens wounded, harassed or obstructed…” (http://www.nuj.org.uk/inner.php?docid=232)

    “James Miller was gunned down by a shot in the neck on May 2 as he approached an IDF apc, waving a white flag. He had been filming the demolition by armed bulldozers of houses in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip” (http://www.nuj.org.uk/inner.php?docid=577)

    “The Palestinian journalist Esam Al Tellawe, working for the Voice of Palestine radio, was shot dead while he was working in Ramallah. He died immediately from a single gunshot wound.” (http://www.wan-press.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=282&recalcul=oui)

    “Darwazeh, who was wearing a fluorescent jacket marked “Press,” was hit in the head and died instantly, according to eyewitnesses.” (http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/cpj2003.html)

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  19. theghostofredken says:
    November 2, 2004 at 3:16 pm

    I’ve got about 30 more if want them. Some could probably be put down as accidents, but the sheer number of journalists killed in Israel would suggest this can’t be the case for all of them. I’m not saying that Israeli government intentionally sets out to kill journalists (esp. Western ones, though possibly the Palestinian ones, I’m speculating here in any case..) as this would be counter-productive but it does seem that the IDF certainly see journo’s as ‘fair game’.

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  20. Roxana Cooper says:
    November 2, 2004 at 4:27 pm

    I don’t suppose these deaths and woundings could have anything to do with operating in a war zone?

    Naaah. Must be deliberate.

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  21. theghostofredken says:
    November 2, 2004 at 4:46 pm

    Dammit, I’m gonna have to quote myself: “Some could probably be put down as accidents, but the sheer number of journalists killed in Israel would suggest this can’t be the case for all of them.” If you follow the links you’ll see not all of them were in the W.Bank/Gaza etc.

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  22. theghostofredken says:
    November 2, 2004 at 5:01 pm

    Anyway, moving away from this wider debate, in relation to the above article, I would say that that there is marked difference between ‘factual reporting’ and an ‘opinion piece’, of which the BBC report, is the latter. For some people Arafat fits the over romantic notion of the freedom fighter like Mandela, Guevara et al. I think the journalist in question was trying to evoke this sentiment, but unfortunately tackled it in a very cack-handed way.

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  23. theghostofredken says:
    November 2, 2004 at 5:48 pm

    I now realise that using the phrase ‘BBC report’ means I’ve contradicted myself. Oops…
    But I’m sure you know what I’m getting at anyway.

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  24. James says:
    November 2, 2004 at 8:50 pm

    Ghost,
    Thanks for the references. I would probably go so far as agreeing with you that members of the IDF would see them as fair game. (I’m not making excuses, but I would imagine the heat of battle, or whatever you want to call it plays heavily into it.) I don’t think it would be a policy of the Israeli government, however…(as you alluded to yourself).

    Thanks for that…

    Regards,
    James

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  25. Roxana Cooper says:
    November 3, 2004 at 2:02 am

    “Dammit, I’m gonna have to quote myself: “Some could probably be put down as accidents, but the sheer number of journalists killed in Israel would suggest this can’t be the case for all of them.”

    So basically you’re accusing the Israelis of a campaign to murder Palestinian pressmen. Possible, I mean this is the press that calls for the destruction of their country and murder of its inhabitants.

    Since you say these journalists are being potted by Israeli soldiers the incidents presumably are happening during confrontations of some kind – whether on the West Bank or not – unless you’re suggesting assassination squads?

    I was simply wondering if the location or activities of the ‘victims’ might not have something to do with their deaths or injuries.

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  26. theghostofredken says:
    November 3, 2004 at 12:20 pm

    “So basically you’re accusing the Israelis of a campaign to murder Palestinian pressmen.” Well, maybe. Several of the shootings are definitely ‘fishy’

    “Since you say these journalists are being potted by Israeli soldiers the incidents presumably are happening during confrontations of some kind – whether on the West Bank or not – unless you’re suggesting assassination squads?”

    No, but read the nuj links and decide for yourself.

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  27. Michael Gill says:
    November 8, 2004 at 5:01 pm

    Matt Drudge now has a link for the Barbara ‘Kleenex’ Plett story.

    With his site’s 13m visits per day that should widen the exposure to this story, especially in N. America.

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  28. Michael Gill says:
    November 11, 2004 at 6:26 am

    Now that Arafat has finally gone, poor Barbara has to face the emotion of the funeral. How will she cope? Will she be weeping more than Suha?

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