I have been horrified and angered by the coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict. While paying scant regard to the provocation of 10,000 rockets fired at Israeli civilians from Gaza over the last seven years, the BBC has chosen to broadcast ‘human interest’ stories reminiscent of salacious photos in the cheaper red top newspapers.
Not alone
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Oops … Fabricant’s, sorry.
Yesterday afternoon I called my MP Andrew Dismore and spoke to his assistant/researcher about holding the BBC to account. She promised me he would respond.
I urge all of MP Andrew Dismore’s constitutents to do the same.
Nearly 8:30
Alas, I suspect you were right first time with ” Fabrican’t ” !
If the Beeb had any balls they’d at least front up to Fabricant’s criticisms which seem to have caused a minor media storm. When they caught flak for the Brand/Ross fiasco if was all over all their outlets for days but this time the silence is defeaning. I’d like to hear what they have to say about his accusations as the coverage last night was outrageous, nothing but “human interest” fluff and unsubstantiated “human interest” at that given that nobody is allowed into Gaza.
Not only is it biased it’s completely unintelligent. Personally I’m not a big fan of the fact that the UK “supports” Israel and gets f*** all back, and the latest push is pretty obviously internal and external politics as much as “defensive” but yesterday in an hour of rolling news coverage I didn’t actually see anyone put a question or hypothesis to anyone other than “are you suffering a massive amount from these evil attacks” to A.Gazan.
If the whole thing is just reduced to pictures of bodies then why don’t they just pile into the Congo to spunk our licence fees up the fall – there’s far bigger piles of corpses there.
On Fabricant’s page someone pointed out that his views might have been affected by the fact that his grandfather was a rabbi.
Pretty racist stuff.
It’s like saying Gwyneth Paltrow’s acting is affected by the fact that her grandfather was also a rabbi.
Personally I’m not a big fan of the fact that the UK “supports” Israel and gets f*** all back
And you know this because …? Are you au fait with what goes on in MI5 and MI6? Or UKTI, for that matter? I don’t know about the first two, but I do know about UKTI and you are talking bollocks.
Grant,
😉
He is not my MP, so I wouldn’t know. But perhaps it’s time to phone my MP on top of the email.
Is this Mark Urban’s dad?
George Robert Urban (12 April 1921 Miskolc, Hungary • 3 October 1997) was a Hungarian writer, best known as a broadcaster for Radio Free Europe (RFE).
After studying at Budapest University, Urban left Hungary in 1948, coming to the United Kingdom where he took up further studies at London University. He also began work for the BBC Hungarian service. He was a radio broadcaster for a number of years for the BBC World Service, leaving and joining RFE in 1960, and becoming its director for a period in the 1980s.
Urban is known also for his writing for Encounter magazine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._R._Urban
Nigel Griffiths is my MP. Asking him to do anything about the BBC would be an utter, utter waste of time.
Anybody else notice how like in 2006 the bBC have yet to air a recent picture of a Hamas militant with a gun.
Where have they gone?
pounce | 05.01.09 – 9:16 pm
One of them can be seen in video that’s been aired on most TV channels, in civilian clothes with an AK47 slung around him, helping injured children out of a yellow Mercedes taxi at the entrance to a hospital.
He’ll be counted as a civilian if and when he’s taken out of action.
Several days ago Hamas ordered its “operatives” to throw away their uniforms.
Chalk that up as another violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Under the Geneva Conventions, soldiers who fight out of uniform or commit atrocities such as, murder prisoners or target and kill non combatants may be shot by firing squads.
Roland 1:19
Yes, I doubt if you well get much change out of “Wee Nigel” !
My MP, here in snowy Edinburgh, is Mark Lazarowicz, normally Labour backbench fodder but he is from a Polish Jewish family , so his reaction might be interesting.
I think I’ll email him and see.
Here’s the Hamas “fighter” in civvies that I refer to above:
At 00.56
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7812495.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middl…ast/ 7812495.stm
Biodegradable | 06.01.09 – 2:26 pm | #
As a matter of principle, if what has happened to Mr. Bowen historically and his reaction to it that I have read here are in any way accurate, then his choice as correspondent for this beat defies logic and belief.
I make no comment here as to the situation(s) that have created his views, but to then subsequently place such a person in a senior position requiring objectivity seems more than questionable.
What next? A de Menendez ‘reporting’ on the Met? Or a Satanic Slut in BBC Trust?
Is the bubble they exist in really that small?
BBC website at 16.30 Tuesday 6th.
Headline:
At least 40 people are killed in an Israeli air strike on a UN-run school in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics say.
Subheads:
Bowen diary:
Mourning the young Gaza conflict:
Who is a civilian?
In pictures: Casualties mount
Humanitarian crisis deepens
Eyewitness: Taking cover
Gaza solution is possible – Blair
Does the BBC ever speak to any Israelis? The one-sidedness is almost laughable, if it wasn’t so tragic.
I wonder if any of the outbreaks of antisemitism by Muslim yobs in North London has been inflamed by this vicious BBC propaganda campaign? In Beeb World only Islam/Islamophobia exists, so they haven’t reported these serious incidents. Of course.
deegee | 05.01.09 – 11:08 pm
Yes, and somehow I think we are unlikely to see this question on the BBC’s World Have your Say:
When is the use of civilians as human shields a war crime?
In the BBC “We are all Hamas now” is the slogan du jour.
You’re absolutely spot on ed thomas! I’m sick and tired of the BBC and their relentless soap opera on palestinian casualities and spot numbers of casualties without giving effect to the breakdown on how many of those are hamas. BBC human resources have a lot to answer for – as does their general director. I mean, really, this is a service we PAY for?? Is there not a body out there – political or otherwise – who can save us from the bogus disaster that the BBC is? The whole thing needs to be replaced by a much more objective and balanced cross-section of employees. When the general director admitted that BBC was ‘institutionally biased’ I think he was right. The marxist lefties who created the front then went on to hire out scores of ethnic minorities in order to tick their ‘multicultural status quo’ and marxist agendas and wala the BBC we have today is a make-up of socialist lefties and ethnic minorities with personalised agenda. Scrap the BBC and let the public decide where their money goes.
jerry | 06.01.09 – 12:46 am |
There will only be peace when the Israeli people wake up and reject the warmongers who maintain their control over Israel through fear. Why do they refuse to obey both UN resolutions and International Law? If there was peace the warmongers and fear merchants would lose their power and perhaps also graft. Because of their lust for power more innocents suffer. Both Israeli and Palestinian mothers are greiving.
Care to cite the “International Law” you’re talking about? Or are you just parroting the usual propaganda? The UN has been trying to undo its mistake of 1948 for 60 years, and has passed more “resolutions” against Israel than against any actual genocidal maniacs in Africa or Bosnia, never mind China. So that’s pretty meaningless.
But never mind. Why don’t your beloved Palestinians ever do a sit-in? Ever heard of peaceful resistance? Why don’t the suffering Palestinian mothers imitate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi instead of Norma? Why aren’t you writing to Palestinians telling them about the methods of Martin Luther King?
You know why, though, don’t you?