reports BBC Views Online’s children’s CBBC Viewsround (or should that be ‘cbbc newsround’ in the dumbed down world of BBC News?), concluding with:
Important
When troops on the same side fire at each other, it’s known as friendly fire, or blue-on-blue.
Although accidents like this do happen in war, this is seen as very important because it could show the Americans aren’t being honest about what happened.
Well, paint me cynical, but that headline is extremely misleading, as if the attack in question was deliberately and intentionally targeted at the British troops. At best this is a case of extremely poor headline writing (perhaps CBBC means it’s written by children rather than intended for them). At worst it’s a case of deliberate and intentional spin by someone straining to paint the US and the Iraq war as negatively as possible. I think it’s clear from our experience of BBC news spin which of these is the more likely case.
Likewise, the concluding paragraph is a great example of malicious BBC news spinning. From my reading of this case, neither the US government nor the UK government have behaved honourably in dealing with this tragic incident, however, that is the nature of governments (and large institutions in general), rather than evidence of specific dishonesty solely on the part of the Americans as the BBC Viewsround journo suggests.
Hat tip to commenter pounce for the link.
Although accidents like this do happen in war, this is seen as very important because it could show the Americans aren’t being honest about what happened.
Friendly fire deaths are very common in war. For obvious reasons armies don’t seek to publicise this, particularly when the accident is ally upon ally.
I suspect that at a senior level, the truth was known very early on but both sides agreed to a certain course of action. After that, both sides had to stick to the agreed script until it became untenable.
“or should that be ‘cbbc newsround’ in the dumbed down world of BBC News?”
The preferred BBC method would be to put a smiley in the “o” of “cbbc newsround” – you know all friendly-like and unthreatening – with the newscaster (dressed as a clown) juggling as s/he reads (or rather barks) the news.
Bizarrely – the beeboid who “edited” this piece so the kiddies could understand how dishonest those awful Americans are clearly didn’t understand that the tape was of two pilots in separate single seater A 10’s.
“……..one of the people on the American plane said ……”
Ignorant and incompetent as well as bigoted… business as usual at the beeb.
BBC hacks never waste time on accuracy and comprehension when there’s so much propaganda to spew out at unsuspecting children and adults.
Stalinist propaganda at its best.
CBBC and its newsround programme are extreme examples of the BBC group-think.
Its a strange world in which the worst possible crime is racism – much worse than murder or rape – nobody is responsible for anything they do unless they are white or american in which case they are responsible for everything.
They are obsessed with Africa for some reason. There never seems to be a group of more than two people without a token ethnic – although there are often groups entirely ethnic with no white people.
Bizarre.
Having watched the video on The Sun’s web site, we were amused that the Today programme couldn’t bring itself to say that anyone with internet access could look for themselves.
This of course made the insistence of the Pentagon / MoD that it could only be shown to the Inquest in private wholly risible, but the BBC version of the news didn’t bring this out.
So, your media is just as bad as the American media hey?
According them everytime America drops a bomb on a cactus in the desert 1,000,000,000 miles from a living person we kill 500 civilians, rape 2,000 women, and cause all of Indonesia’s miscarraiges.
Ass-clowns….
A point the beeb has never highlighted about the video is that the pilots are obviously distressed when their mistake becomes clear.
They are clearly human in a way you never seem to see from the muslims crowing about the killings for which they are responsible.
Good contrast, gordon-bennett.
When The Sun leads a campaign against US military incompetence and whitewash it’s fairly obvious that there’s grounds for concern. The first para of the story specifies that the attack was accidental.
It is a very very bad headline though.
I don’t see the problem.
The Americans did attack UK forces (mistakenly obviously, but nevertheless undeniably).
Boil down the story to short words and simple explanations and it is the best way to make the story understandable to kids.
I think this blog would be better if you cacheted your criticism with advice to the BBC on how to improve a story’s bias. At the moment it seems more like your problem is with the world being biased rather than the BBC.
And criticising children’s’ television for being simplistic as and of itself? Come on. Seems rather barrel bottom scraping. If you don’t have a good example of biased BBC reporting, wait.
When you’ve been on the receiving end of USAF fire as we have on several occasions including Gulf War 1 where 2 A10s blasted a convoy of 3RRF killing 3 of my fellow Queen’s Own Highlanders and 6 soldiers from 3RRF, you might understand why some people are getting excited.
After all the old joke was when the Germans fire the British duck, when the British fire the Germans duck and when the Americans fire EVERYONE ducks….
That said A10 pilots are highly trained and they are in the middle of a combat zone making split second decisions which I and most of my colleagues would hate to make. They having been getting a lot of support over here as well.
Here’s a quote from a former RAF Squadron Leader who now runs the EU Referndum blog, a daily port of call for me on defence matters.
“Because The Sun leaks the cockpit video and the media go into feeding frenzy, this is a good reason why the pilots should be subject to some further action?
If I was Mr Harding (Daily Telegraph) or any of his sad little crew, I would be looking very hard at the words printed under my name today and be feeling very ashamed. British journalism, the Daily Telegraph included, has reached a new low.
Perhaps the most appalling thing about this whole episode though is how these people, who do their own jobs so badly, can be so critical of other who put their lives on the line to do far more arduous and dangerous jobs. There is not one of these journalists fit to polish the shoes of those A-10 pilots.”
This is what STANAG and NATO were supposed to do; ensure that the US and all her allies were using the same kit or at least using kit that could talk to each other. The Tornado that was shot down also suffered because IFF wasn’t squawking what the Patriot battery wanted to hear even though the British Rapier batteries could.
Were I Secretary of State for Defence I would buy American – cheaper, battle proven and the instruments are in English….plus in many cases their kit is better!
The BBC could have concentrated on the MoD failures as well as those of the coalition forces. We have yet to see the BBC Panorama screaming about the many many British soldiers killed becuase the MoD have still not sorted the right vehicles needed fro Iraq. They said they would put something like 100 Massifs into Iraq by the end of last year – number so far? 4.
THIS is the sort of thing the BBC should be reporting not their usual anti American crap.
Great words Dave T….
And as we all heard in the news very recently, due to British Harriers being so usless for ground pounding, the British troops in Afghanistan call in American Air Support when needed….I wonder how many British lives have been SAVED by A-10s………
When the next A-10s are called in, and the pilots think twice, and a British position gets over-run because of it…the blood will be on the hands on the British media….but what do they care.
The BBC: acting as the recruiting sergeant for Al Britannica’s first jannissaries.