Please use this thread for off-topic, but preferably BBC related, comments. Please keep comments on other threads to the topic at hand. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments – our aim is to maintain order and clarity on the topic-specific threads. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog. Please scroll down to find new topic-specific posts.
(UPDATE: I’ve bumped the timestamp on this open thread forward rather than start a new one so soon. Several new posts below.)
Not a word about this from the BBC news:
“Amnesty International has issued an urgent appeal calling on its members to write letters to the Republic of Iran asking them not to stone seven women.
Nearly all of the women have been sentenced to die by stoning for adultery”.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=24814
.
It would draw attention to one of the nastier aspects of Islam. That is NOT ALLOWED in the BBC.
The BBC and half a story;
Nato to press Pakistan on Taleban
Nato’s commander in Afghanistan is in Pakistan amid accusations by Afghan politicians that the Pakistani spy agency, ISI, is helping the Taleban. Gen David Richards, a British officer, is expected to meet President Pervez Musharraf during his visit.
Gen Musharraf has denied claims the ISI is indirectly aiding the Taleban
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6032721.stm
So there we have it folks the BBC says that the Pakistani Int and squint has nothing to do with the Taliban.
And here is how the Torygraph reported this angle last Friday;
“Nato officials now say they killed 1,100 Taliban fighters, not the 500 originally claimed. Hundreds of Taliban reinforcements in pick-up trucks who crossed over from Quetta • waved on by Pakistani border guards • were destroyed by Nato air and artillery strikes. Nato captured 160 Taliban, many of them Pakistanis who described in detail the ISI’s support to the Taliban”.
And
In Panjwai the Taliban had also established a training camp to teach guerrillas how to penetrate Kandahar, a separate camp to train suicide bombers and a full surgical field hospital. Nato estimated the cost of Taliban ammunition stocks at around £2.6 million. “The Taliban could not have done this on their own without the ISI,” said a senior Nato officer.
Gen Musharraf this week admitted that “retired” ISI officers might be involved in aiding the Taliban, the closest he has come to admitting the agency’s role.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/06/wafghan06.xml
The BBC and half a story.
Interesting debate at Harry’s Place about the metro-centric viewpoint of the MSM.
“As someone who grew up in a Lancashire town with a large Muslim community, mostly of Pakistani origin, it does seem odd that the entire media and political elite has now decided that there is a problem with lack of integration in communities and that there are some issues to be debated about the role of religion in hindering such integration. Incredible as it may seem to those setting the agenda, people across Britain have been talking about these issues, amongst themselves, for a couple of decades now.
They’ve been talking amongst themselves because the ‘national’ media in London either didn’t realise there were issues or decided that such provincial concerns weren’t worth bothering with or that we were all a bunch of backward racists anyway. The result was not only that the media failed in their job – to inform the nationwide public about major matters of concern – but that their blindness made it very difficult to have the necessary arguments inside those ignored communities. ”
http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/2006/10/09/this_is_london.php
The BBC and no story;
Outcry at N Korea ‘nuclear test’
North Korea’s claim to have successfully carried out a nuclear weapon test underground has sparked international condemnation
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6033457.stm
Did you read that salient snippet?
nuclear weapon test underground
So with the above firmly entrenched in my head I was somewhat surprised by this apology of sorts from the BBC editors blog
There are 193 countries in the World, not including Taiwan. (Why mention Taiwan BBC unless you agree with how China tells the world not to recognise Tiawan) The BBC is excluded from just a handful. So the news that the big story of the day is happening beyond our reach is problematic.The North Koreans dropped a hint about their intentions last week, so the overnight news that they had tested their first nuclear device didn’t exactly come as a surprise. That said, when my phone buzzed with the text alert at 0410 this morning, it wasn’t the best start to the day. How do you report a story with no pictures , from a place you can’t get to?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2006/10/beyond_reach.html
Tell me BBC how do you get pictures of an underground nuke test?
Before any of the clones start to berate me for taking the above out of context. Here are a few more complaints from that article about the lack of pictures;
“And facts are only part of the problem. Add to that, the fact of the lack of pictures,”
And again here;
“So a confusing story with no pictures”
Just wondering BBC how the world reported the news over the old crystal radio sets?
The BBC in POT,KETTLE.BLACK
Lees attacks ‘sensational’ media
The girlfriend of a British backpacker murdered in the Australian outback has hit out at her treatment in the media in the wake of the killing. Joanne Lees was abducted at gunpoint by Bradley Murdoch who was found guilty of murdering her boyfriend Peter Falconio, from Huddersfield, West Yorks, in 2001.
In a BBC interview, she accused the media of sensationalising the case.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/6032661.stm
So the BBC airs a story about the irresponsible media, by inserting In a BBC interview The BBC tries to give the impression they above all that crap.
So here is a story aired today on the BBC;
Soldier sentenced for sex abuse
A soldier who admitted a string of sexual assaults on young boys has been jailed for eight years.
Army youth worker Mark Walker, 42, of Credenhill, Herefordshire, pleaded guilty at Worcester Crown Court to 27 specimen counts of indecent assault. He also admitted six charges of sexual activity with a child. The charges dated back to 1981, some taking place at an army base in Germany.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hereford/worcs/6035325.stm
So the BBC reports on the story of a kiddy fliddler who is also a soldier. Wrong.
Here is what the BBC writes later on in that news report;
“Walker, a father-of-two, rose to the rank of staff sergeant and served in Northern Ireland, the first Gulf War and Kosovo before leaving the army in 2005.”
He left the army in 2005.
Now if the report had stated ex soldier I wouldn’t give a toss. But by trying to say this man is still serving The BBC gives the great unwashed another example of how it is no better than the Current Bun when it comes to sensationalism.
I think the correct catchword here BBC is “GOTCHA “
And of course had Walker been an ex BBC newsreader then there would have been NO mention whatsoever of his current or former occupation…..I too am getting sick of all this ex soldier crap. We get twits who spent a week in training before being kicked out for being twits who then commit offences and lo! they are ex soldiers and thus it must have been something they were taught or a character defect that only applies to ex soldiers etc etc
Perhaps it is because some in the BBC think meanly of themselves for never having been a soldier to quote Dr Johnson!
This is exactly what has happened in some parts of the UK.
Turning Red: Immigrants Tip the Balance in Belgian Local Elections
“Ironically, as I pointed out earlier, in their efforts to counter the indigenous “racists” and “fascists” of the VB, the Socialists and Christian-Democrats do not hesitate to put far-right Muslim candidates on their electoral lists. Some of them, such a Murat Denizli, a member of the Turkish racist and fascist organization Grey Wolves which assassinates Socialist councilors at home, have now become Socialist councilors in Belgium (Mr Denizli was elected for the Parti Socialiste in the Brussels borough of Schaarbeek).”
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1480
Re: North Korea situation
Haven’t had a chance to see the Beeb reporting, but I watched the 7pm C4 news. Apparently the US is to blame for what has happened there………
beachhutman | Homepage | 09.10.06 – 5:49 pm | #
on world service today began a series “iran – a revolutionary state”
a title at once ambiguous, yes, but flattering in at least two senses
two great revolutionary states i can think of in terms of human freedom, whatever their shortcomings, would be (gulp!) france and (bigger gulp!) the usa
maybe we’re supposed to be subliminally led to include amongst these examples of revolutionary states that other bastion of liberte and egalite, found in the middle east?
Mark Malloch Brown. You may have heard of him. He’s the British Deputy General Secretary of the UN, mate of Kofi Annan (don’t let the door hit you on the way out) and no stranger to having a bust up with the US at the UN.
Anyway, via Samizdata, I learn that he gave a speech at a Globalisation Institute shindig during the Tory Party conference. In that speech he said:
After all our efforts at reform, Kofi and I felt let down, if not betrayed, by the UN Human Rights Council’s biased and unbalanced approach to the Lebanon conflict. They focussed solely on Israeli actions, while ignoring the atrocities committed by Hizbollah.
Coming from him, my gob is smacked. Strangely, I heard nothing from the BBC.
http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/2006/10/on_the_fringe_t_1.html
on the latest episode of “Spooks” tonight, guess who are the bad guys?
why, its MI6. ho hum… another week, another “spooks” episode sticking the boot into the British security services.
(please do let us know when they get around to depicting Islamist/North Korean/Iranian/Somali terrorists)
re the harrys place link above
“Of course there are a number of explanations for the differences between German and American media and the centralised British model but I would suggest the fact that both the US and Germany are federal republics is a pretty major one.”
i would concur with that, but there is a major caveat with that idea.
Both the aforementioned federal republics were born out of war (and in the case of Germany, a pretty big one at that)
I wouldn’t mind if England went *peacefully* to a federal republican system, but there’s the small matter of 1000 years of history and tradition. in other words, its a non-starter , in my lifetime at least.
A plea to all people reading this:
Stop eating the planet. Now.
Pete_London – interesting. I think pounce has mentioned a few times that the BBC only mention half a story that fit into there vision. During the recent Isreali- Hiz war we heard many people condeming Isreal for tragetting civilians. I wonder how many of these people actually condemed Hez as well but conviently the full quotes were never reported by the BBC?
Pete_London,
I saw Malloch Brown’s comments in Samizdata too and my gob was no less smacked than yours. Interesting to see if it is reported as widely (by the BBC and others) as M-B’s anti-Bush sentiments.
Paxman on Newsnight.
“If israel has nuclear weapons, why shouldn’t North Korea”
what this situation has to do with Israel is beyond me.
Paxman
“will there have to be starvation in North Korea”
as if there has not been starvation there already and is going on now.
Also Assad is not to blame , they had a democracy but american intervention i the middle east forced it to become a dictatorship
what utter Shi*
“Assad genuinly popular in Syria”
Was that the same popularity that Stalin had with its subjects.
now a beeboid is currently making out with Assad on Newsnight right now!
archduke 9:15
i was thinking about watching that but decided to watch the nuremberg trials instead.
Which in fairness to the BBC was good ( also last weeks episode with Goering was really good)…However that has been the only good programme i’ve seen on the BBC since the office.
however i have been subjected to extreme mental anguish when watching the Beeboid output, i have yet to get through a whole episode of question time without throwing something at the tv and turning it off ( i think the longest time i lasted was half an hour)… i may considering suing for extreme mental distress.
also (gloating) Paxman on Assad :
He’s a sophisticated chap isn’t he
The BBC and character assassination;
Back to the Kriss Donald racist murder case.
Witness breaks halt Kriss trial
The trial of three men accused of the abduction and murder of Kriss Donald has been halted after a key witness was unable to continue his evidence. Jamie Wallace had been describing how he and his 15-year-old friend were attacked by Asian men as they walked in the Pollokshields area of Glasgow. The 22-year-old had to pause four times as he told the High Court in Edinburgh about the events of 16 March 2004.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6033503.stm
So lets look at how the BBC describe that awful incident;
“The three accused have denied racially-motivated murder.”
Note not Racist hate crime, but the lesser sounding racially-motivated.
So how does the BBC go about defending those so called 3 innocent men why it resorts to the old stalwart of throwing mud in the hope that some sticks;
So we have the longest reporting so far by the BBC on this case and all of it is aimed at discrediting the main witness.
“In court he identified one of the accused, Imran Shahid, as the man who had attacked first, and called him “Baldy”.
However, the trial also heard that in October last year Mr Wallace failed to pick out Mr Shahid in an identity parade.”
And
“Defence QC David Burns, for Mr Shahid, asked why Mr Wallace had not named “Baldy” as one of the attackers when he first spoke to police. Mr Wallace agreed that at the time he did not know Baldy, and had not met him. But he had “a reputation” he added.”
And
“The witness was also questioned about his drinking, his use of cannabis and prescribed medication and his mental state at the time of the incident, until the judge called a halt.
And
“Mr Burns suggested that at the time of the alleged abduction, Mr Wallace was drinking heavily, smoking cannabis and taking medication for paranoia.
So there you have it folks the BBC on the offensive once again in which to portray blood thirsty murderers as the victims of a delusional young man. When was the last time you saw somebody who was bloody guilty of the crime (lets not forget how Daanish Zahid and Zahid Mohammed have already got sent down for this ugly act and how the other 3 who carried out this act did a runner to Pakistan. It was only on their extradition to the Uk that their (this) court case has started) get such a defence on the BBC.
One last thing BBC how can you hide the ‘R’ word in the middle of that crap you call a news report. A news report with the heading Witness breaks halt Kriss trial
When the much lesser act of 3 idiots who spat and subjected a poor Muslim woman to a load of verbal abuse as a racist attack in the title; Father and sons admit race attack
Not once BBC have you used Racist in any of Kriss Donalds news reports.
It beggars beyond belief how you can omit the fact that Muslims can be just as racist as whites. (Hell as an ex muslim I’d put my money on them being 20x more racist) But from your negative reporting all I see is whites bad,Muslims good.
On a similar note. I walked through Trafalgar square the other month and in the top corner was a candle lit procession for that kember fellow. The idiots who were there (about 20 – 30) stood in a circle in the way of everybody.(forcing everybody to walk round them) I walked right through the bloody middle of them. Stopped turned round and looked at them to their faces.
Not one, and I quote not one said a word to me and all looked down or away. (Fearing a one man jihad I think)
That is how Liberals fight they look away when somebody who can inflict physical pain on them stands up to them. And you know what they would have defended my right to do so as a result of Bush and Blair little war. Now contrast that with how they would have bitched if the police had moved them on?
Anybody notice how the BBC operates along the same lines.
John Simpson to Assad (from memory):
Do you think it will be possible one day for Israel and Syria to recognise each other’s right to exist?
I wasn’t aware that Israel didn’t recognise Syria’s right to exist.
pounce | 09.10.06 – 6:36 pm | #
but didn’t someone once say “once a gunner, always a gunner”? 🙂
The BBC and half a story;
Blind man was ‘dangerous driver’
A blind man, who lost his eyes in a bomb blast, has been convicted of dangerous driving after police spotted his car on the wrong side of the road. Omed Aziz, 31, was being aided as he drove through Oldbury, West Midlands, by an allegedly banned driver in the passenger seat. Warley magistrates were told he reached speeds of up to 35mph on the half-mile trip in April. Aziz, of Oldbury, who denied dangerous driving, will be sentenced next Monday. At a previous hearing, Iraqi-born Aziz pleaded guilty to driving with no MOT, no licence and no insurance. Aziz is also partially deaf and suffers from leg tremors.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/5313370.stm
Ah bless Mr Aziz is not only blind, he’s deaf and suffers from leg tremours.
Well here are a few snippets from 24 dash Al Beeb didn’t bother their arse in reporting;
A blind motorist who embarked on a half-mile car journey was shown mercy by magistrates today despite his decision to attend court in a T-shirt emblazoned with “B4D MO7H3R FU5K3R”.
And
The Iraqi, who receives £520-a-month in incapacity benefit,
http://www.24dash.com/content/news/viewNews.php?navID=7&newsID=10323
Call me a f-ing racist. But why is this person living in my country, living off my taxes when he has not only shown contempt for this country but hasn’t earned the right to receive any benefits at all.
amimissingsomething wrote;
“but didn’t someone once say “once a gunner, always a gunner”?”
Sorry mate, I was a sapper.
“paxman – He’s a sophisticated chap isn’t he
DofF |”
amazing how the latent racism of the media elite, just bubbling under the surface, suddenly bursts through.
John Simpson:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6034665.stm
President Assad says he has put out peace-feelers to Israel already. Ehud Olmert, Israel’s embattled prime minister, has rejected them; but other leading Israeli politicians think it might be necessary to talk to Syria.
I suggested to President Assad that Israel would be more likely to respond favourably if Syria cut its ties with movements and regimes which sought Israel’s destruction. He defended his links with Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran, but insisted he did not want to see Israel wiped off the map.
When I asked him if Syria and Israel would one day be able to live side-by-side in peace, each accepting the other’s existence, he answered promptly. “Yes, the answer is yes.”
Meanwhile in the real world…
Israel denounces ‘threat’ as Assad says war possible
IDF prepares for possible Syrian attack
“Assad genuinely popular in Syria”
i’m looking forward to the Mori poll data and the free election data that they used to come up with that statement.
remind me again – why are we paying for this crap?
biod -> yeah – caught that on debka. israel is in turmoil now in the wake of the lebanon fiasco. with iran going for the nuke option, a perfect diversion would be a syria annexation of the golan heights. in fact, the timing is perfect right now.
You could have knocked me down with a feather.
Today on the World Service I distinctly heard a newsreader mention the fact that Arab attackers had laid waste to an African village in Sudan and killed many people, including women and children.
I heard it a couple of times and I wasn’t really paying that much attention. Probable complicity of the Sudanese government in the massacre was also mentioned.
Could the BBC be waking up to its obligation to inform the public about Sudan?
The ‘I’ or ‘M’ words were, however not mentioned. Well, I guess the BBC has to crawl before it can walk.
archduke and Pete_London, of course neither Paxman nor Simpson reminded us, or Assad, that Syria is still officially at war with Israel. So all this talk about peace and Assad blaming the lack of it on the US, on the UN and just about everybody except himself is pure bluster, propaganda and taqquiya.
In case we forget, after the various Arab-instigated wars on Israel only Jordan and Egypt have since signed peace accords. The rest, including Syria, are officially still at war with Israel.
During the recent Isreali- Hiz war we heard many people condeming Isreal for tragetting civilians. I wonder how many of these people actually condemed Hez as well but conviently the full quotes were never reported by the BBC?
Jon
But according to Simpson in his Baby Assad report, Hizballah’s rockets merely “tormented” Israel.
A current (and moderated) (D)HYS thread on UKIP:
Is UKIP the “voice of the British majority”?
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=4162&&edition=1&ttl=20061010004659
Is the UK Independence Party at the “centre-ground of British public opinion” as its new leader, Nigel Farage, claims? The party is best known for campaigning to withdraw Britain from the European Union. Despite this, it won 10 seats in the 2004 European Parliament elections.
‘Despite this’?!
Pete_London writes:
“Despite this, it won 10 seats in the 2004 European Parliament elections.”
Ah, now there we have the true voice of the BBC.
And Reith still likes to pretend it isn’t biased?
i noticed on sky news that military action against North Korea is being immediately discounted.
the bbc is also following this line
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6035621.stm
“So there is no real sense that the US is actively considering a military response.”
so , you can take it as a given that there will be military action. does anyone with half a brain really think that Dubya would leave office in 2008 with the Dear Leader in control of nukes?
“The rest, including Syria, are officially still at war with Israel.”
which is why Assad is sucking up to the BBC prior to launching a war. improving his image and all that, so that he appears “reasonable” to the Al Beeboid chatterati.
the fact that he is dictator of a Hitlerian fascist society seems to have escaped the Newsnight team. i wonder why? (no , dont bother answering that one… we all know the answer)
“‘Despite this’?!”
well spotted.
to be honest, i find the EU debate in the MSM in the UK to be infantile.
Are the Norweigians raging “far right xenophobes” for wanting to stay out of the EU? What UKIP is trying to raise are important questions on democracy and the very idea of the nation state and self-identity.
Bryan | 10.10.06 – 12:05 am | #
i heard that too, bryan…
IIRC, some months ago a bbc presenter asked an interviewee why he referred to attackers in sudan as arabs but to their victims as africans – weren’t they all africans, the presenter wanted to know
the interviewee responded that that was the terminology the arabs themselves were using!
now, i smell just a hint of latent racism here somewhere, but what’s a “journalist” to do when s/he has been beaten to the punch, and can’t hide ethnicity behind continental affiliation?
not to mention how to distinguish between culprit and victim when there is a very clear distinction in the minds of some!
not to mention how to distinguish between culprit and victim when there is a very clear distinction in the minds of some!
amimissingsomething | 10.10.06 – 1:52 am | #
sorry, meant to say “not to mention how to distinguish between culprit and victim when both are from the same continent, but there is a very clear distinction in the minds of some!”
“does anyone with half a brain really think that Dubya would leave office in 2008 with the Dear Leader in control of nukes?”
Er, yes actually. Does anyone with half a brain think that Dubya would leave Seoul a smouldering ruin for the sake of his legacy – he’s not that daft. Military action isn’t being discounted because of a bunch of liberal pussies whining, it’s being discounted because it’s strategically impossible without unthinkable horrors. This ain’t a bunch of bearded blokes with Kalashnikovs we can merrily bomb from 50,000 feet with no comeback.
Cockney: Drop the ‘we’. This is for grown-ups, not the UK or EU. Do you really think the US, Japan and Australia give a damn that the Euroweenie puditocracy is all a-twitter again?
Of course NK can be bombed, if needed. Big if. Especially since it now looks like the nuke may have been a ‘nuke’. Watch the BBC struggle with that.
spotted: BBC bias,
9-Oct-06: One More Death, Four Different Viewpoints
Other than the fact that a Palestinian Arab died today as a result of shots fired by Israeli service personnel at a crossover point near Shechem (Nablus), almost everything connected with the death of a man called Mohammad Sa’adah today is in dispute. It’s instructive – for those of us who care about the role played by the media – to see how different agencies deal with those disputed issues. We’ll start with the BBC:
Two Palestinians killed by Israel
The Israeli army has killed two Palestinians in separate incidents in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Palestinian medics said a 14-year-old boy was killed in northern Gaza. Israel said it killed a Palestinian retrieving a rocket launcher. In the second incident, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian they said was trying to stab them at a checkpoint close to the West Bank city of Nablus. But Palestinian witnesses said the 20-year-old victim was unarmed.
As usual, the BBC gives us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. A 20 year-old Palestinian who the Israelis say was trying to stab them, killed by the Israelis. How awful. Yet another innocent death to add to the toll. Another needless death chalked up to those trigger-happy Israelis.
Next a Palestinian agency known for its highly partisan coverage of news from an exclusively Arab viewpoint for consumption in non-Arab news markets:
Army kills Nablus resident at Huwwara checkpoint south of the city
Ghassan Bannoura • IMEMC & Agencies – Monday, 09 October 2006, 16:50
Mohammad Sa’adah, 22, was shot and killed on Monday afternoon by Israeli soldiers stationed at the Huwwara military checkpoint south of the West Bank city of Nablus. Soldiers did not release the body of Sa’adah for some time then gave his body over to a Palestinian ambulance that took him to Rafidia Hospital in the city. Sa’adah is a redident of Tall village near the city of Nablus. Local sources said that Israeli soldiers are holding scores of Palestinian civilians at the Huwwara checkpoint and the nearby Beit Iba checkpoint. Soldiers closed the two checkpoints after the incident. The Israeli army claimed that Sa’adah ran towards the soldiers at the checkpoint and tried to attack them with a knife. Soldiers then opened fire at him and killed him. Eyewitnesses at the checkpoint said that the Sa’adah ran towards a car at the checkpoint when he was shot by a number of soldiers. They said that he was not holding a knife as the soldiers claimed. However, soldiers insisted that they found the knife in his clothes after killing him while searching the body.
So the Pal-Arab version knows about an attempted attack and about a knife. Strange that the BBC failed to pick that up. Move on now to the version of Haaretz, a serious daily from Israel that holds a left viewpoint on most things.
Report: IDF kills assailant near Nablus
Also Monday, IDF soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian at the Hawara checkpoint outside of Nablus. The IDF said the man ran toward a soldiers and tried to attack them with a knife at which point they opened fire and killed him. Palestinian witnesses said the man, Mohammed Saadeh, 20, a Palestinian policeman, ran toward a car at the checkpoint when he was shot by three soldiers. They said they did not see him holding the knife, a small paring knife, but that soldiers later found it in his pocket.
That’s interesting. The innocent Pal-Arab is a policeman in the service of the Palestinian Authority. To us, that seems like a relevant piece of information, particularly when the Americans, with enthusiastic support from Europe, are looking to substantially boost the size of Mahmoud Abbas’s personal security force and the ranks of the PA police. Is it possible that the BBC could have overlooked this?
Finally, this from Yedioth Aharonot, an Israeli tabloid:
Nablus: Soldier kills Palestinian after stab attempt
Stabbing attack thwarted: Soldiers at Hawara checkpoint shoot, kill Palestinian who tried to assault troops with knife
Efrat Weiss (Published: 10.09.06, 18:17)
A Palestinian man was shot and killed on Monday in the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus after attempting to stab IDF soldiers who were manning the checkpoint. The man raised the suspicion of the soldiers and then attempted to attack them. One soldier shot the man at his lower extremities and wounded him. He died shortly thereafter. A preliminary investigation revealed that the man approached two soldiers who were inspecting vehicles at the checkpoint who were leaving Nablus. At some point the soldiers became suspicious of the man, and after questioning him regarding his actions, the man took out a knife and assaulted one of the soldiers, knife in hand. The Hawara checkpoint experiences an incident or an attempt to attack soldiers on daily basis. In addition, the soldiers thwarted attempts to transfer weapons through the checkpoint.
It’s a small story. Among all the bloodshed and misery, just another death. And as most of us know, there’s plainly no such thing as objective reporting when it comes to highly contentious issues like the Arab/Israel conflict and the jihadist war against the world.
But there are still some among us who aspire to seeing news media who understand the meaning of impartial. Give us the facts, we say, and let us make up our own minds. It would be interesting to know whether the BBC’s large Israel-based staff thinks it belongs to the school of impartial reporting. Israelis like us who consume its reportage daily, albeit from a standpoint of criticism, believe the BBC does not even come close. For ourselves, it’s hard to say this is because of their reporters in the field. Most of those we’ve met (not all) seem serious and professional, especially when compared with reporters for lesser media orgs. That only leaves us to wonder about what must be happening in far-off Bush House where – presumably – they have a much clearer and wiser view of matters than we lesser mortals
out here in the sub-tropics.
forgot the link:
http://thisongoingwar.blogspot.com/
max | 09.10.06 – 10:13 pm |
We’re eating the planet? Suddenly I’m reminded of a scene from Spaceballs, on planet Spaceball, where the atmosphere has been depleted by people breathing too much. At one point during the scene we see a sign in the background that says “Conserve Oxygen: Breathe Less!”
I guess we’d all better stop breathing before we suffocate the planet with our very existence.
Knacker,
Grown ups don’t indulge in the sort of comic book macho b*llocks you’re talking about. Of course NK could be bombed – that’s self evident. There’s a strong possibility that Seoul – in artillery range let alone whatever else they’ve got up their sleeves – would be annhilated as a consequence. That’s 10m people.
Now call me a Euroweenie but it’d take a particularly imbecilic gung-ho bumper sticker enthusiast to play that hand and I don’t think there’s many of those in the Bush administration 3 years into Iraq irrespective of whether they give a toss about EU opinion which Im prepared to accept they don’t. Might feel the need to pay some sort of heed to China next door though.
Always nice to hear that Australia has joined the Premier League of global players though – apparently purely on the basis that it has a red faced, mildly right wing and hawkish premier. Grown up geopolitical analysis there mate.
Re. bombing North Korea.
I have to agree with Cockney on this one (nurse!) 😉
We have an acknowledged nutcase in charge of North Korea, a country armed to the eyeballs even if it can’t feed itself without China’s help. As he says, Seoul is well withing range of a hell of alot of NK artillery, and I don’t doubt such artillery can contain alot of nasty stuff which started out in a test tube. The choice is simple then: no military response or an overwhelmingly violent one, with the acceptance of thousands of civilian casualties. The likelihood of that is non-existent in my opinion.
amimissingsomething | 10.10.06 – 1:52 am,
Yes, the BBC giveth with one hand and taketh away with the other. (Mostly taketh away.)
There’s no way the US will attack NK. The bam pot in charge has repeatedly “thumbed his nose” in bbc speak at the US for ages. The North Koreans have explicitly stated their aim to acquire WMD and nothing was done, now they’ve got them it’s even less likely that anything will be done on the military front. Iraq got it for possibly developing WMD and the koreans get of scot free for actually saying they were making them
If NK had vast oil reserves and sat in a region where it could menace other countries with vast oil reserves it would be different. As Iran will probably discover.
That is how Liberals fight they look away when somebody who can inflict physical pain on them stands up to them.
pounce | 09.10.06 – 11:10 pm |
I agree pounce. Anne Coulter has commented in her usual way about liberal appeasement:
“While the form of treachery varies slightly from case to case, liberals always manage to take the position that most undermines American security.”
and (on the war on terror & east coast liberals)
“…the savages have declared war, and it’s far preferable to fight them in the streets of Baghdad than in the streets of New York (where the residents would immediately surrender).”
and finally
“Gore said foreigners are not worried about ‘what the terrorist networks are going to do, but about what we’re going to do.’ Good. They should be worried. They hate us? We hate them. Americans don’t want to make Islamic fanatics love us. We want to make them die. There’s nothing like horrendous physical pain to quell anger. Japanese Kamikazes pilots hated us once, too. A couple of well-aimed nuclear weapons got their attention. Now they are gentle little lambs.”
Ouch!
I can’t find any mention of this anywhere on the BBC website:
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=1&subID=815
It would appear if you’re a Muslim, you’re a terrorist, but if you’re a BNP councillor up in court after your plan was foiled when you were discovered with “the largest amount of chemical explosives of this type ever found in this country”, apparently you’re not newsworthy.
I fully expect most of the regular readers here to assume that the story is false, that it’s all a mistake, that nobody as nice as a white surpremacist BNP councillor could be involved in anything ‘dodgy’ or that it must be a fix-up by a bunch of those dodgy muslims.
Alas, as usual, those readers would be mistaken. The new front in the BNP’s war appears to involve biochemical weapons. What a lovely bunch of people.
Still, at least the BBC didn’t sully their news broadcasts with coverage of this ‘mistake’, eh? Wouldn’t want to upset the Daily Mail readers out there…