, according to TotallyJewish.com:
An internal corporation email sent on Monday revealed that the 39-year-old, who has come under considerable fire for a perceived anti-Israel bias in her coverage, will leave Jerusalem in December to start a new posting in Johannesburg.
While Israel government press office director Danny Seaman said the corporation, rather than any one person of having been guilty of “shoddy” journalism with regards to Israel, he told TJ: “Unfortunately, despite personally liking her, she didn’t always uphold the standards of balanced and unbiased journalism one would expect.”
The announcement of former Bafta-nominated Guerin’s leaving comes weeks after the departure of another controversial correspondent Barbara Plett, who last year said she cried as a dying Yasser Arafat was airlifted from his compound.
The article concludes:
Looking to the future, Seaman said: “We hope that BBC will send an individual of professional standards worthy of journalism if not the BBC.”
I hope that the BBC will also send “an individual of professional standards worthy of journalism if not the BBC” to Johannesburg too!
There are no signs of the departures of Barbara “I cried for Arafat“ Plett or the charming Ms. Goering being reported on the BBC’s Newswatch site or announced by the BBC Press Office yet.
Thanks due to Ritter for the TJ link from a comment thread below.
Excellent news! One has to feel sorry for the poor old South Africans, though.
And the news of la Plett’s departure hadn’t exactly been trumpeted from the rooftops. I wonder if the deadly duo had begun to realise the game was up?
Apparently Caroline Hawley is taking over in Jerusalem.
OK. Only joking.
No, I just heard it’s between Matt Frei and Justin Webb. Can’t have any backsliding on the Israel-is-a-fascist-state campaign, can we?
You’re not serious are you Phil?
Justin Webb in Israel?
My God, he’d be too stupid to survive — no matter how much brown-nosing he did to the Palestinians.
On second thought, maybe that would be a good thing. . .hmmmm.
I’m not serious, happy to say, but we can be pretty sure that whoever gets the job will be expected to be able to do a pretty affecting emote-to-camera.
Incidentally, I went back to the “I cried for Arafat” thread which was dated 11th November last year. That topic, and the other 32 on that bit of the site, between them attracted no external comment whatsoever. Compare that with the number of people who are now commenting regularly. Seems like the site’s getting some momentum. The days of Portland Place’s Ministry of Truth are numbered….
Funny, I remember people commenting on the Teary Babs thread last year. Perhaps the comments got wiped out by the ever unreliable haloscan?
Not quite Phil – it’s a feature of Haloscan that they only display comment numbers for recent comment threads – if you click on any of the comment links you refer to you’ll see the comments are still there, even though the total shown is ‘0’.
Thanks for the explanation Andrew.
Yes thanks Andrew – I’d thought there’d been Teary Babs comment, so I was a bit surprised myself to see a succession of zeroes.
Does this mean that Mugabe will be shown as the ‘new Arafat’ leading his people against the British colonialists by Orla etc etc?
Now to get Hawley out of Baghdad – since she speaks Arabic there are few places she can go…hey what about Libya or Sudan – the lifestyle there will suit her miserable countenance!
Well we can certainly expect a few “reportage” items on the South African government’s repossession of Boer farms, with a nice Marxist twist of returning the land to the “people”.
I will admit, however, that my sympathy for the SA farmers is considerably less than that for Isrealis, but the left-wing spin on the stories will set my teeth on edge.
Now I think I’m right in saying that Goering’s husband Michael Georgy works for Reuters in Iraq. (Got that from her Who’s Who entry). What a shame Johannesburg is further away.
I saw Plett reporting from Pakistan on the earthquake. Is she there permanently now?
Hazel
Pakistan would be an appropriate posting for the Tear-Stained One. Plenty of ugly old terrorists in that country for her to get all misty-eyed about.
Very true Susan!
I was actually thinking about how Plett will so enjoy reporting on the burgeoning diplomatic links between Pakistan and Israel.
And reports on how Pakistan has slowly accepted Israeli aid offered for its earthquake victims. Not that that’s reported on the Beeb at all.
Hazel
Susan
My mother has been on holiday in north Pakistan (don’t ask, she has just returned from western China) and I doubt that Guerin would be able to function there as a reporter.
Cafes would empty as my mother walked in (although she would be served) and other experiences (self-flagelation for example) left her extremely troubled and this is a woman who visited Saigon in 1963 for fun!
i saw barbara plett interviewing some palestinian terrorists.she was swooning over them.i suspected trouble would come from her.
reminded me of women who write to brutal prisoners and end up marrying them.
Peregrine,
I would hazard a guess that your mother was in a Shiite area of Pakistan as they are the ones who do the self-flagellating. They also believe that non-Muslims are najjis — or “filthy” — which would explain why your mother emptied out cafes. Really devout Shiites won’t eat from plates touched by non-Muslims without them being washed many times, etc.
So why do they emigrate to countries still populated by najjis?
Beats me Alan. Most Iranian immigrants (majority Shiite) I know are not that devout; many have left Islam all together; others I know have become liberal enough — under Western tutelage – to recognize what a horrible racist concept najjis actually is, and are embarrassed by it.
But several Iranian friends of mine have confirmed that many of the “older generation” of Iranians still wash their plates and cups multiple times if they come into contact with non-Muslims; refuse to swim with non-Muslims etc.
Tonight’s 10pm news (20 Oct)
was a disgrace by Margaret Gilmore.
They were talking about immigration in the UK.
Stats reveal 580 000 people arrived last year.
40 000 from Eastern Europe
40 000 From Australia
123 000 from “new” commonwealth nations
by my calculations that makes 203 000 people.
Margaret scurted over the over 378 000 people
where the hell did they come from dear?
they’re all blinking asylum seekers? or what?
this is outrageous, and all along 200 000 british people left the UK.
you can understand why. this is a joke.
I’m not taking this anymore. and the BBC are deliberately suppressing the truth.
Why, this time the BBC has gone too far.
and this labour government is SH*TE
i’m sick of them. i’ll never vote labour again.
THis great nation has been reduced to a pile of rubbish.
And this is the people we know about, there are probably another 500 000 illegals we have no idea. remember Blunkett “i dont know how many are here?”
Something needs to be done before things get ugly.
What I particularly enjoyed what the reference to the immigrants being highly skilled. I can only presume that those British subjects leaving these shores are unemployed drug addicts rather than skilled workers seeking a life in a country that actually values them.
“What I particularly enjoyed what the reference to the immigrants being highly skilled.”
Which is of course a completely accurate statement.
Skilled in making bogus asylum applications.
Skilled at making repeated asylum appeals.
Skilled at making applications for benefit payments.
Skilled at obtaining public sector housing.
Skilled at denigrating the country that hosts them.
Skilled at denigrating the people of the country that hosts them.
(Those last two particularly apply to a certain Yasmin Alibhai-Brown)
Unfortunately these skills do not seem to be in great demand in most other countries so the poor dears have no alternative than to bring them to our shores.
Bless….
O/T
–snip–
Syria ‘involved’ in Hariri death
There are fears the report could add to Lebanon’s political turmoil
A UN inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri says many leads point to the direct involvement of Syrian officials.
—snip–
Why scare quotes when there are evidence for involvement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4362698.stm
Anonymous, in this case the quotation marks are there because the word between them is actually a quotation. One gets so used to quotes enclosing a phrase on which the writer wants to cast doubt that one begins to feel they are always used in that way.
Russian army cleared over Beslan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4360106.stm
I know most of the BBC bias items here deconstruct, justifiably, their rabid anti-Americanism(from Iraq and Katrina to the South Asian earthquake) and anti-Israel bias, however, its always struck me that the BBCs reporting of events in Russia & their anti-Russian sentiment is equally far from objective! Notice how the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in Moscw can write this stuff without once mentioning Islamic terrorists with massive bombs or shooting children, instead only a subtle blame of the Russians themselves. Such ‘news’ truly sickens me.
Ian Barnes,
Calm down mate!
But I am sure this will push you over the edge… Tiny bit of news coverage regarding Trafalgar Day.
And I dont expect it to be in the “other news” section for long.
Disgusting.
I missed the Today programme this morning, so was wondering whether there was an analysis of racism in Nelson’s Royal Navy, or whether Nelson’s attitude to muslims was covered?
John. Anti-Russian sentiment??
If there’s one thing which the Chechnya situation illustrates it’s that scenarios like this can rarely be realistically reduced to Bush-esque good vs evil.
You’re right that the BBC’s reporting has rarely examined the relative importance of Islamic fundamentalism and separatist nationalism in Chechnya.
However if you’re suggesting that ad-hoc destruction of civilian areas, ‘disappearances’of men, women & children etc etc etc are fully justifiable as long as they’re carried out by uniformed soldiers against alleged terrorist sympathisers/secessionists (and that the BBC should adopt this line) then I’d suggest that’s dangerous ground.
Presumably Saddam’s brutal military repression of secessionist Kurdish areas could be justified on the same grounds.
It’s certainly a fact that the PC brigade (including the BBC) frequently shifts its moral compass depending on the identity of the ‘victim’, however increasingly advocates of US style interventionalism seem to be adopting the same selective approach.
Oh don’t do this to us…pleeeeese!
to Rob White, you’re clearly a well informed chap and i welcome your comments, but tell me do you think i have a reasonable point or not?
I think i do, and i think i aired it quite reasonably.
I’m not happy with the BBC’s suppression of the truth, if you can;t accept that then maybe its you that needs to wake up, and not me calm down…
For the BBC to deliberately ignore to answer where the other nearly 400 000 people have come from is terrible reporting..
You can’t start by saying x represents this group, y represents this group, and z well we wont even answer that, because it doesnt suit the GOvernment!
The BBC are so in the New Labour government’s back pocket its sick.
Another good day to release “bad news” just after the euphoria surrounding the Conservative leadership contest.
Lets all face the facts for a change please, because together we can beat the BBC.
Immigrants,
Come to Tower Hamlets council and “Claim to the Max” (message is in several languages so you don’t even have to speak English to get money extorted from British taxpayers)
Ian Barnes,
Ian I think you took my light hearted banter the wrong way as I agreed with all the points you raised.
Rice taking Straw to her heartland
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4362392.stm
What’s race got to do with it?
Jonathan Beale details Jack Staw & Condoleezza Rice’s forthcoming USA visit.
First half of the article educates and informs as we are told the agenda for the trip.
That’s not enough for Jonathan though. Having read Frei’s outburts on Katrina, he needs to remind us how the Americans are racist.
Jonathan has a problem though. Easy though it was for Frei to call Americans racist re New Orleans (white on black = racist) it’s a bit more difficult for Jonathan when talking about Condoleezza. No getting away from it, she’s black. Could she be a racist? Maybe. She’s American, and successful so ‘probably’ (in the BBC’s eyes). But it’s a bit tricky to pin down in print. Jonathan finds a good solution. Condoleezza is protecting the US administration, who are racist! Good one.
“By meeting those who’ve been displaced by Hurricane Katrina she also clearly hopes to prove that her administration cares about the plight of all Americans whatever their colour.”
In true Darcus Howe style, Jonathan talso tells us “race” is ‘important’, but seems unable to articulate exactly why in relation to the Rice/Straw visit.
The best Jonathan can come up with is race is ‘important’ becase Jack Straw’s constituency has a “large number of British Asians.”
I don’t get the connection. Does anyone else? Are there a large number of asians in Alabama? Even if so, I’d be asking “ok, and…..?”
In Jack Straws constituency, there are a large number of women, men, and also lesbian, gays, disabled, christians, muslims, young, old etc. In relation to this visit I don’t understand why ‘race’ is more or less important than other issues.
Jonathan finishes off by betraying his left-wing views on the UK/USA geo-political ‘special relationship’
“But however noble the objectives, there’s a danger that many may still be left wondering what it’s all about.
Why – with Britain and America already close allies – do they need to spend all this time together?
Wouldn’t they be better off investing time with all those countries around the world with whom they really need to improve relations?”
Dam those Americans!
“Wouldn’t they be better off investing time with all those countries around the world with whom they really need to improve relations?”
That’s probably France and Germany. But they are irrelevant because their economies are sinking faster than an overloaded Bangladeshi ferry (What Europe will look like if the EU continues to remove personal economic freedom).
Ritter
A quick Google search reveals this Ass Press story has been picked up by many in the MSN, Jonathan Beale although accredited with the story is in fact merely responsible for the nonsense tacked onto the end of it.
IMHO
Beale has one agenda; it is to make race relations the issue of the visit (which it isn’t) and to question British ties with America as he feels it should be sucking up to the EU (which it shouldn’t)
Thanks James Hamilton for making it clear.
Matt Wells is going to be the new Middle East correspondent. He will be sending all of his reports from the gym at his condo in Santa Monica, so there will be no doubt about the quality of his reporting or his objectivity.
Just to remind ourselves of the quality of his work, here’s a link to that infamous piece:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4210674.stm
What are particularly interesting are the public comments below the piece. If they are in any way representative of the human population (of course they are not – this is the BBC, silly) then approx. 70% of the world is populated by credulous empty headed lunatics.
Standard doom’n’gloom Bush-bash from Frei….bringing joy & light to Guardianista everywhere…..
Bush plagued by domestic troubles
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4362658.stm
Ritter,
All oppressed “people of color” as well as white feminist women and bi/trans-gendered/gays and of course, Muslims, are peacefully united in a happy clappy diversity rainbow against the evil white male judeo-christian capitalist oppressor, without whom the world would be a paradise of earthly delight. So, of course British Asians would find it of gravest importance for Jack Straw to be seen hobnobbing with an African-American rumored closet lesbian from Alabama!
Surely you can now see the perfect Beeboid logic behind it all. . .now relax and close your eyes for just a few more “re-education sessions” and all will be fine. . .all will be fine. . .
What really gets to me is that all those who complain about Britain being “too close” to the US never seem to have any problems with Britain being “too close” to the EU.
d’oh
Deepdiver
OT:
Did anyone else hear the 8 o’clock news this morning on the Today programme? Referring to the release of the Guardian journalist Rory Carroll in Baghdad, the newsreader – I think it was Charlotte Green – said ‘the kidnappers are thought to have been criminals rather than militants’.
So kidnapping isn’t a crime when it’s carried out by so-called ‘militants’?
From Frei’s report
the pollsters recording a 38% approval rating – rock bottom for Mr Bush.
Andrew Kohut, of the Pew Research Center, says: “They are reactions to performance, they are reactions to Iraq, Katrina and a lack of progress on a whole range of domestic issues.
“Seeing the Republicans in the administration as beleaguered by accusations just adds fuel to the fires of discontent.”
I would suggest that it is fuel itself that is the main cause of Bush’s low poll ratings.
Not being the most photogenic of the BBC’s correspondents, I can remember Viz magazine referring to Orla Guerin as the BBC Middle Earth correspondent. Not far off the mark if you can imagine Gollum in a keffiyah!
OT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4361838.stm
“But the Iraqi government, politicians and some UN officials are said to have illegally profited from the programme.”
“SOME” Understatment of the year! and who are the “politicians”.
I listened to that extraordinary row between Joan Rivers and Marcus Howe on the radio 4 Midweek programme:
They’re going to discuss the row in a few minutes on the World Service. Could be worth a listen. The original row certainly was!
Er, if anyone needs the links to the Midweek programme and the World Service…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/midweek.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/
(For the World Service, scroll down just a touch to listen on Real Player or Media Player.)
Ritter said:
The best Jonathan can come up with is race is ‘important’ becase Jack Straw’s constituency has a “large number of British Asians.”
Do you think Jack Straw or BBC would like to introduce British asians to this person?
Elaine Lan Chao (Chinese: 趙小蘭, pinyin: Zhào Xiǎolán, Wade-Giles Chao Hsiao-lan; b. March 26, 1953) currently serves as the 24th U.S. Secretary of Labor. She is the first Asian American woman and first Taiwanese American to be appointed to the federal cabinet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Chao
Don’t forget this Japanese-American
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Shinseki
Media Guardian review Darcus Howe’s film re the relationship with his son. Their comments echo that of Rivers in a more subtle way:
Last night’s TV
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/comment/0,7493,1597493,00.html
“Whenever Howe was criticised, he retreated to his default position. “I feel absolutely persecuted,” he said, when his first wife suggested that he was an absent father. He also told her “don’t be pompous”, in one of the film’s many moments of comedy. Later, after a dinner party, he lashed out at Quinn, claiming there was a fundamental problem in a white man making a film about a black man. Drink had been taken on both of these occasions, and it’s unfair to judge a man by what he says in his cups – unless it’s in a film to which he’s put his name.
There was a time when Darcus Howe was an agenda-setting polemicist, a provocateur whose occasional lapses into self-parody were a necessary catalyst to debate and change. On this showing, however, the only agenda was his own, and the self-parody came queasily close to self-pity.”
The Joan Rivers episode may have been the tipping point for the race relations industry.
The more people halt racist mewling and pukeing the better.
It is time for people of colour to start to compete in the arena of ideas. The playing field is now level and people of all races and any origin must engage on the basis of character.
“sons of bitches” like Darcus Howe suceed only in keeping thier people in servitude.
The tide is turning, the stranglehold of the Left on the post-war culture is weakening.
Socialism is Necrotizing,
If the UK population were hugely racist how can they explain the Hindu immigrants doing vastly better financially than identical (skin colour wise) Muslim immigrants.
How can they explain the Hindu immigrants being jailed in vastly fewer numbers than Afro-Caribean, and 4 times less likely than the “aboriginal” UK population?
It’s a culture of failure that keeps people in their place, and racists like Howe blaming whitey for all their woes instead of fixing the REAL cause of their problems (namely their own culture), are not helping.
A cynicist might add that Darcus Howe would be out of a job if his culture sorted its own problems out.