Says the link to this BBC story. It’s currently the main story on their ‘In Depth’ page.
Mental image of another poor chap in a wheelchair, or hobbling along with the aid of a stick.
The story ? “A young Palestinian man with learning disabilities has been shot dead by Israeli troops near the West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinian officials said. Local residents said Mujahid al-Simadi had gone up to the troops with a toy gun and shouted that they should leave the village. He was among a number of children who had surrounded a house occupied by Israeli soldiers and began to throw stones, Palestinian security sources said. The soldiers opened fire from the house and Mujahid al-Simadi hit in the chest and died immediately, they said.”
Two things here. Firstly the characteristation of someone with ‘learning difficulties’ as ‘disabled’, no matter what disability benefits such a person may be entitled to in the UK, is essentially dishonest. To the vast majority of BBC news viewers, ‘disabled’ implies a physical disability. The prisons of the UK are full of people with learning difficulties, but the BBC have not yet taken to describing them as ‘disabled prisoners’. Secondly, the source of the information on his disabled status is apparently ‘Palestinian officials said’. Where are the quotes that traditionally go round such an assertion ?
Strange. I heard what seemed like an important (and depressing) story on the news yesterday, but I can’t find this story on the BBC website yet. “BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has stumbled across the first evidence of a death squad within Iraq’s Interior Ministry after the detention last month of 22 men wearing police commando uniforms who were about to shoot a Sunni man, according to the American general overseeing the training of Iraqi police. The men turned out not to be police commandos but were employed by the Ministry of Interior as highway patrolmen, according to Maj. Gen. Joseph Peterson, who commands the civilian police training teams in Iraq. “We have found one of the death squads,” he said. “They are a part of the police force of Iraq.”
The current Middle East page features … guess what ?. If anyone finds the police story on the BBC, could they let us know via the comments ?
UPDATE – the police story has arrived – just before midday. Thanks to commenter Archduke for the spot. They’ve given it third spot on the Middle East page, relegating the disabled Jenin man to the top of the ‘More from Middle East’ section. Of course, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are still numbers one and two. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
This must be why H M Government wants to ban replica (BB) guns being imported – I rather like Airsoft weapons but I can see now why the Govt is frightened that Muslims might misuse them
the israeli soldiers were conducting an anti-terror raid on the house i.e. it was an adrenalin pumped squad of troops out to either snatch or kill targetted terrorists.
then this eejit goes up to the house with a replica gun.
try doing that to a squad of SAS soldiers – you’d get the same result.
Regarding the death squads in Iraq, I heard something about them on a BBC 4 radio broadcast last thursday around 8.30. The BBC were following an army unit around Basra and the existence of these squads is well known there.
The BBC haven’t got a very good track record with “targeted killings of disabled people”, unless those targeting the victim are Israeli. Does anyone remember the disabled woman set on fire on a Paris bus during the recent riots? I would hardly call the BBC coverage extensive, in fact I think they referred to it as “a protest”, natch.
“Regarding the death squads in Iraq”
iraqis track down terrorists and execute them : death squad
american soldiers track down terrorists and execute them: counter-insurgency operation
anyone else see the implied racism in those phrases?
quite frankly, if i were an iraqi, being bombed by islamo nutters every friggin’ day, i would see these death squads as a painful necessity.
its war. horrible things happen.
and it seems to me as if the iraqis have taken matters into their own hands in order to deal with the terrorists. cant blame them, quite frankly.
He was among a number of children who had surrounded a house occupied by Israeli soldiers
Is it just me, or does that wording help to make it seem like this man was a child?
_____________
Rob – whenever the BBC have to mention Leon Klinghoffer, they repeat the lie that he was shot dead and then thrown overboard. This is much less horrifying than the truth: that he was still alive when his murderers threw him and his wheelchair overboard (in front of his wife).
Some disabled people count more than others, apparently.
iraq death squad story has made it to the bbc
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4719252.stm
accessible via “the struggle for iraq” , right hand side, middle east section:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/default.stm
the iraqis have had an election.
they have voted for their government – so you could well say that iraq is a democratic country.
and yet the bbc still calls the terrorists “insurgents”:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4716700.stm
“The owner of the ruined CAMERA SHOP said he did not know why his store had been targeted.”
heres a hint: islamic extremists.
portrayal of any living thing is anaethema to the Jihadists. its not just Mohammed – its ANY living thing.
Plumber area?
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1212504,00.html
“He was among a number of children who had surrounded a house occupied by Israeli soldiers…
Is it just me, or does that wording help to make it seem like this man was a child?”
That was exactly my response; it confused the heck out of me. If you look for Mujahid al-Simadi on Google news you find that the original BBC headline was “Disabled Jenin boy shot by troops” rather than “Jenin man”. To be fair, several of the other news sources describe him as a “teen”, or a “brain-damaged boy”.
I assume the BBC’s idea is that a 20-year-old man with learning difficulties is essentially a child, because mentally ill people are pure and innocent, with their child-like vision of peace and co-operation with nature etc. Children are our future. Let them lead the way etc.
The report ends “On Monday, Israeli troops shot and killed a 25-year-old Gaza woman near the border fence between the territory and Israel” – which sounds damning, but I have to assume that there’s something missing. A “woman”? “Near the border fence”? She was just wandering about?
~
“I rather like Airsoft weapons”
I have long thought that the only reason the BBC has acknowledged this blog is because the BBC believes it would have no problem in squashing it. It’s the BNP-supporting, Airsoft-toting, WW2-enthusing, Nazi-expert blog. The comments at Little Green Footballs have the unfortunate effect of neutralising it, because it is so easy for the media to present the comments as if they were part of the site’s editorial (given the presumably deliberate deception above, nothing is too underhand for these people).
Rick,
Please don’t use racist terms on this site.
They are only ‘Muslims’ when they are being praised for good deeds/integration/tolerance/etc.
If they are being critisised/questioned/guilty of a crime/etc, they are ‘plumbers’
the King along with the Crown Prince and Princess of Norway are visiting the Queen
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/bildeserier/article1142599.ece?start=5
theres not even a hint of this on the bbc news site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/default.stm
you’d think there would be just even a slight nod to this on the bbc site , out of courtesy to our Norweigian friends. i mean, their King is in town! very odd.
I see the story arrived at 2 minutes to midday.
I don’t worry about the BBC misrepresenting this blog – they do that with so many issues which are far more important. But I do think they’re taking notice – because blogs are, in a small way, competition and an alternative news source. For example, the video of the Paris cartoon demonstration at the No Pasaran blog is telling a story that the msm would prefer not to see. For some stories now I find blogsearch is the best tool – because if something is tucked away on the BBC site, or not reported at all (are the recent surveys of Iraqis (showing an overwhelming majority, despite all resevations, would rather be where they are now than back under Saddam) on the BBC ? If so, they’re very low profile) then one blogger can ‘amplify’ it.
Their other worry is that they’ll lose their reputation for balance – which they deserve to do.
“Their other worry is that they’ll lose their reputation for balance – which they deserve to do.”
well, the “norway king is no news” is a clear sign of that.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006070635,00.html
BBC decides not to show an episode of “Spooks” in which an al-Qaeda “terrorist” is shot, lest it inflame Muslims (who evidently don’t like their terrorist brothers being opposed). The BBC also do not show the Danish cartoons, leading non-muslims to think that they are images that would outrage the man on the Clapham omnibus.
So, as Marc has pointed out on a previous thread, the BBC are only concerned about inflaming Muslims when the BBC itself may be the target.
The BBC have no qualms about outrage that could endanger Coalition forces.
First with the Basra video, shown before MOD investigation, & now the release of further Abu Ghraib pictures leading many (see (D)HYS)to think that further, unpunished, acts have occured there.
one o’clock news – jonathan charles reporting from iraq re abu gharaib.
inbelievably biased reporting – Iraqi government minister basically says that its an old story and we’ve moved on – its been dealt with.
this ends up being translated into “iraqis want americans to leave iraq”
as a example of this perceived wanting of iraqis for the yanks to go is the last shot is of the remains of a terrorist bomb attack in iraq.
seriously , you couldnt make this stuff up.
death squad story has pushed off the abu gar-yaaaaawn story… thank god.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Has anyone thought of the possibility that the “Abused Prisoners” actually hurt THEMSELVES???
I’ve heard that some shots showed a man banging HIS OWN head into a wall……
And only last week we saw pictures of some Muslim Festival where the men Beat themselves, and slashed their heads and faces with knives, then have their own blood COVERING their faces and bodies……
Lizzie
Good point about Leon Klinghoffer being alive when he was thrown from the Achille Lauro into the Med in front of his wife. That murder is one the BBC has long tried to soft soap.
Ashley Pomeroy
I’m afriad you’ll have to fill me in on a few details. What is this person like, the one who’s BNP-supporting, Airsoft-toting, WW2-enthusing and a Nazi-expert? Let’s leave the BNP-supporting thing aside. You have a problem with airsoft enthusiasts? It’s a harmless activity which is none of your business unless you take part.
You have a problem with someone who’s interested in the truly, astonishingly interesting WW2? With someone interested in knowing much about the regime which were responsible for WW2? Frankly, I’d be wary of someone without an interest in WW2 and the Nazi regime. Only the chronically uncurious wouldn’t want to know more.
Re: BBC acknowledgement of blogs, I think Paul Reynolds is probably genuine rather than making a subtle point about the nature of the ‘opposition’. B-BBC generally shouldn’t scare off too many potential ‘converts’ to the (state sponsored) media bias cause barring the occasional outbreaks of bonkers Gramsci obsessed conspiracy theorising. Not sure the same can be said of the slightly demented USS-Neverdock though.
Here’s a prime example of how the BBC doesnt “get it” when it comes to publishing for the web:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4719364.stm
note how the story refers to articles on various websites – and yet they arent hyperlinked in the story itself.
its maddening to read the story as it weaves through various sources without giving them so much as a link credit – even though some of the content is lifted from these online sources.
good example :
——————————
An online magazine, The Register, also says that it was in Portsmouth that “dictionary-starved and enraged mobs attacked a paediatrician”
——————————
with “the register” not even hyperlinked.
as i sad – they dont “get it”.
typo: “as i said – they dont get it”
A very good post, Laban.
In addition to that Jenin story you linked to I would like to highlight, yet again, another aspect of what I take as a blatant and recurring bias on behalf of the bbc- that of ‘humanizing’ Palestinians and ‘dehumanizing’ Israelis via the choice of words used in the headline and sub. In your linked bbc article and another which is subsequently mentioned in the last pargraph of the same Jenin story: that of the shot Gazan woman.
Points to consider:
When Israelis shoot Palestinians it is written in such a way as to make it absoulutly clear who the perpetrators are and how they do the killing i.e “Disabled Jenin man shot by troops“ and sub “A young Palestinian man with learning disabilities has been shot dead by Israeli troops“. From the other story linked above: “Israeli troops kill Gaza woman.” and sub “Israeli troops have shot and killed a 25-year-old Gaza woman near the border”
Furthermore, the Palestinian victims are always identified by name and in most cases, age (see above): “Mujahid al-Simadi, 20“ and “Fatima Abu Musayed was hit by two bullets” .
All of the above examples, together with the descriptive ‘unfortunate’ condition of the victims or otherwise ‘criminalizing’ evidence i.e “boy”, “woman” etc. attributed to P victims are intended to gruesome-ify the acts of the Israeli troops. Mitigating evidence, when exists, is displayed towards the end of the report, if ever.
Contrast this with this story , which has immediately disappeared from the relevant middle-east page:
Head: “Woman dies in Israel knife attack“. Sub : ” A woman has been stabbed to death and at least four other people have been wounded in a knife attack on a minibus in central Israel.”
The attack is on a minibus not Israeli Jews. The woman just “dies”. She has NO NAME. The murderer is not identified as a Palestinian, only in the next paragraph, like this: “Witnesses said the attacker, thought to be a Palestinian from East Jerusalem (!), got up from his seat and began slashing at anyone within his reach.”
In the sixth paragraph (note the wording): “Reports say the victims were mainly elderly.” Reports say.
This “news” article is the only one about this terror attack on elderly civilians. There is no mitigating circumstances for this attack .
For the record, reports now confirm –
The name of the murdered woman was Kinneret Ben-Shalom. She was 53. Four others were seriously injured.
In conclusion: The BBC is the enemy of Israel. It should be treated as such.
Michael Totten, is travelling (and blogging) in kurdistan (northern iraq)
http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001056.html
what he has to say is eye-poppingly different to anything you hear on the BBC.
the openly pro-american Kurds are probably too much to handle for your average Beeboid.
“The BBC is the enemy of Israel. It should be treated as such.”
the israelis know that. they got so pissed off at one stage that they broke off all contact with the BBC and refused to do any interviews with them. I think it was around the time of the “jenin massacre” pallywood hoax, which the BBC swallowed hook, line and sinker.
ah well – Orla Goering is off in Africa now. Expect buckets of tears for the poor poor Africans and how we’re all to blame for it.
max,
The BBC is the enemy of everyone who values the truth.
michael totten interview, talking about kurdish northern iraq:
http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/totten200602160845.asp
————————————
NRO:Is there still a lot of good feeling toward the United States?
TOTTEN: It’s astonishing. It’s probably the most pro-American place in the world. Certainly the most pro-American place I’ve ever been
———————————–
“Palestinian officials said” (I think it was the Major who confirmed it).
Well, al-Jazeera says the dead ‘man’ was 15 and describe him as having “learning difficulties”. In one paragraph, he was “waving a stick”; later in the piece it is a “toy gun”. The BBC says he was 20 and “disabled”.
Strangely, none of the other reports I have read mentions the deaths of the 12-year-old boy or the 25-year-old woman. Does the BBC think there is a link between these deaths and this sad incident in Jenin? Or is it trying to tell us that the IDF are heartless bastards who kill women and children for fun?
Rob Read,
“The BBC is the enemy of everyone who values the truth.”
Supported.
archduke,
“the Israelis got so pissed off at one stage that they broke off all contact with the BBC and refused to do any interviews with them.”
Yes, but they subsequently resumed contact without getting anything in return. I don’t see why they should co-operate with the BBC at all. BBC reporters should be declared persona non-grata with all the implications thereof. Frankly, I can’t see a downside for such a step. Given the way Israel is being portrayed by them, it’s unlikely that Israel will suffer any further PR losses.
OK, make that enemy of Israel, everyone who values the truth and Holocaust survivors.
It should be called IBC- Iranian Broadcast Corp.
here’s how the Jerusalem Post reports the “disabled Jenin man” story:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395421019&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
headline:
“IDF kills Palestinian teen carrying toy rifle”
Wonder how much this will be buried by al-MSM?
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/760ukool.asp
I wish the BBC could write an article that good. But then why should they bother? They are funded by extortion and thus disregard customer demand.
Jerusalem Post reports that “He was transferred by the Red Crescent ambulance service to the hospital and, shortly after, reports were received that he had died.”
Meanwhile The “Independent”, which no doubt shares the same “Palestinian” witness sources as the BBC tells us that “Mr Aburob said it had taken about 15 minutes for a neighbour’s car to take him to hospital after an ambulance had been unable to get to the incident but that Mujahed had died at the scene.”
I know who I believe…
For those who still beleive a word the palestinians say…
Hooray for Pallywood.
http://www.seconddraft.org/movies.php
Archduke was concerned about the BBC’s technical coverage of the paedo myth. But it is an interesting review of the subject.
Tim Worstall recently blew off the great unwashed, justifies by recalling their attack on a Plymouth paediatrician, when the truth is that a woman in Gwent found graffiti sprayed on her wall. Despite the hyperbole of this guardian article, there was no evidence that it was more than as a result of common or garden vandalism.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/story/0,7369,361031,00.html
There are of course many examples of this distortion of history in the stoppers account of the lead up to the deposing of Saddam.
Doesn’t this possibly-never-to-be-shown episode of Spooks answer the question of how the BBC would portray Christians who dared to protest in a similar fashion to those upstart Muslim marchers? Since that is rather unlikely to happen in real life, the producers of Spooks felt compelled to make up a trigger-happy Christian fundamentalist character, who goes and does a bad, bad thing in blasting a Muslim terrorist. Can we point to that as proof positive of BBC bias on this matter? Quite possibly IMHO.
I am interested to know the BBC’s source for this item of news and why it has mentioned the other two deaths, without explaining if or how they were linked to the killing in Jenin.
I am also intrigued to know why the BBC says the dead lad was 20. Even so, the BBC still describes him as a “boy”.
I also have a problem with the “Palestinian sources” not because I distrust them (well, not all the time…) but because single-source reports can be inaccurate (see above).
palestinian sources = their “fixers” in the PA area , who are usually linked to Fatah. i.e. its pallywood.
i stand corrected on the norweigian king – the norweigian site i quoted is just misleading (no date mentioned)
he visited last October.
WPC shooting
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/4717800.stm
still no description of the gunman who shot her.
and surprise surprise – the police havent made an arrest yet.
OT
As change from reporting US abuses in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, tonight’s PM program devoted 10 minutes of prime radio time to bring us news of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s forthcoming production of Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’. With particular relevence to current events the play, set at the time of the New England witch trials, was intended by the author as an allegory for the show trials in Stalin’s Russia…sorry, McCarthy’s America. The play is described by it’s director as a “search for the truth”….a concept that must seem so novel to the BBC news gatherers that they found it worth highlighting.
Ashley,
“I have long thought that the only reason the BBC has acknowledged this blog is because the BBC believes it would have no problem in squashing it. It’s the BNP-supporting, Airsoft-toting, WW2-enthusing, Nazi-expert blog. The comments at Little Green Footballs have the unfortunate effect of neutralising it, because………”
Yawn.
RB – “Not sure the same can be said of the slightly demented USS-Neverdock though”
Seems Paul disagrees with you RB.
Arch, as for hyperlinks, Paul emailed me and said the BBC feels using hyperlinks in a report makes the webpage look unreadable. Here is what he said:
“The issue of hyperlinks is often discussed here I can assure you. It is not a technical problem. It is an editorial and stylistic one. Ours is a news site. Yours is not. Your is opinion mixed in with other stuff. Ours draws on multiple sources to produce an overall story. One story can take in stuff from AP, Reuters, AFP, TV monitoring, BBC sources etc. If we linked to very fact from every source, the text would be so littered with links that it would be unreadable.”
It would also prove the BBC’s bias as well.
Regarding the death squads in Iraq, I heard something about them on a BBC 4 radio broadcast last thursday around 8.30. The BBC were following an army unit around Basra and the existence of these squads is well known there.
Rob
You’re quite right. Stories about the Basra death squads were broken last year. They have been a point of friction between British Troops and the civil authorities in Basra for months.
But these are Americans finding that the death squad syndrome is moving north to Baghdad.
The story about the Americans finding these 22 guys impersonating police seems to have been broken on R5 about the same time as it appeared on the Beeb website.
I wonder if that is how news is disseminated through the collective?
marc ->”It would also prove the BBC’s bias as well.”
indeed. i pointed out that paedo/paediatrian story out as it was a clear example of a story that needed hyperlinks (as opposed to a normal news item).
as for readable style – sure. thats a point.
but why not collect the hyperlinks to sources referenced at put them at the bottom – its not *that* hard to do.
to me , that article smacks of leeching other peoples work without giving due credit – and a credit is a hyperlink in the world of the web.
which is why i said they dont “get it”.
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By Paul Carrel
PARIS (Reuters) – France accused Iran on Thursday of pursuing a secret military nuclear program, drawing a swift rebuke from Tehran ahead of talks next week on a Russian proposal for resolving the dispute.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Iran’s nuclear work, which Tehran says aims to generate electricity, could not possibly be designed for civilian uses alone.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-02-16T140853Z_01_L16562184_RTRUKOC_0_US-NUCLEAR-IRAN.xml&archived=False
Uncle Jacques Chirac, that cuddly anti Iran war teddy bear, who apparently galvanised the BBC and fellow travellers into a Frog love fest is keeping a low profile. Just what is he going to do about Iran? He slapped the allies for invading Iraq but in his dark moments he might think those mad mullahs in Iran may just nuke Paris for dis-respecting French Muslims and not allowing French Muslim females to cover their heads.
Spineless frenchies? Have we been here before?
On topic: the BBC’s use of the word “disabled” in their headline is a disgrace. Everyone knows that this is a politically incorrect. The term “differently abled” should be used instead. The BBC should hang their heads in shame for using such phraseology.
I suggest that Biased-BBC commenters complain to the BBC about this creeping political incorrectness in their reporting. Let’s get “disabled” erased from the BBC’s collective lexicon.
OT: the latest Mohammed cartoon – this time published in a Portugeuse magazine
http://hmmh.blogspot.com/2006/02/new-drawing-of-mohammed.html
‘Disabled’ is politically incorrect? Well, I never.
‘Disabled’ seems much less harsh than ‘invalid’ yet in the UK, people receive ‘Invalidity Benefit’, which makes claimants sound like non-people. I don’t think even the BBC could have used ‘mentally invalid’ in this context.
Some media agencies described the dead lad as “retarded”.