Will the BBC put the brakes on the incremental nudging, step by step, of the acceptable limit of on-air condemnation of Israel before the momentum takes us over the top and tumbling down the other side to hell in a handcart?
The boundaries are being pushed further and further towards outright antisemitic hostility, in casual and formal BBC output.
This consensus-creep defies logic and reason. It deliberately airbrushes out most of the terrifying characteristics of our mutual ideological enemy and constantly allows biased narrative to remain unchallenged.
John Simpson thinks ‘Obama hasn’t put enough pressure on Israel, and “on the other hand” hasn’t offered the Palestinians enough.’
BBC world service features a group of bereaved parents from both sides working together for peace. A good news story? No, an anti Israel one. An Israeli daughter, murdered by a suicide bomber, a Palestinian daughter shot by an Israeli soldier. Leading questions by the interviewer have the Israeli allege they are ‘brainwashed into hating Palestinians,’ and that, for his peacemaking efforts, other Israelis regard him as a traitor. The Palestinian father says that Israeli soldiers shoot Palestinians with impunity, and that Jews never punish their own. Both interviewees express resentment against Israel. Economical with the actuality? Inversion of the actuality.
“Israel’s refusal to stop building in the Jewish settlements – all of which are illegal under international law – despite repeated American requests, means that the Palestinians will not renew negotiations.” opines Jeremy Bowen.
Israelis are required to live side by side with a Palestinian state, while the Palestinians still refuse to even recognise the Jewish state, let alone renounce violence. Such obligations have simply been airbrushed out of the equation and now the settlements are deemed the only obstacle to peace.
So the BBC disapproves of brainwashing, yet embraces Islam. It disapproves of harming civilians, yet calls terrorists and suicide bombers freedom fighters or militants, and describes their atrocities as audacious. The BBC admires peacemaking, yet ignores Koranic-based antisemitism and hatred.
Netanyahu’s admirable speech to the UN General Assembly was ignored by the BBC and the British walkout during Ahmadinejad’s was disguised as something else. So. Criticism of Israel ratchets up till all-out condemnation of Israel becomes overt antisemitism which bit by bit loses its stigma.
There’s a lively discussion going on at Harry’s Place right now about the BBC. It’s taken as read that the BBC is institutionally biased against Israel, but there is disagreement over whether it is due to ignorance, laziness, a conspiracy or a multi faceted combi of all three and more.
They do know about the subject, and don’t just ‘think they do’ from listening to the BBC.
http://cifwatch.com/2009/09/25/does-ahmadinejad-read-the-guardian/
CiFWatch tells how the BBC reported the UNESCO vote ………
First thing the Tories need to do (well OK they need to disinfect Downing street and remove the Bogies etc.) is to force the BBC topublish the Balen report.
“Over seventy years ago, Winston Churchill lamented what he called the “confirmed unteachability of mankind,” the unfortunate habit of civilized societies to sleep until danger nearly overtakes them.
Churchill bemoaned what he called the “want of foresight, the unwillingness to act when action will be simple and effective, the lack of clear thinking, the confusion of counsel until emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong.”
I speak here today in the hope that Churchill’s assessment of the “unteachibility of mankind” is for once proven wrong”
Exactly.
If the bBBC allowed us all to see Netanyanu’s superb speech perhaps OdefinitelyMTE would recognise the source of the quote.
As for the whip-round, I suggest a bout of self-flagellation…
Another fab post Sue.
The BBC is not antisemitic. As I write they are preparing a piece on Yom Kippur recipes and Jews as victims during the Holocaust with emphasis on Palestinian heroism in the same conflict.
TooTrue speaking, over…..Can anyone hear me, over….Tried to login with open ID as ‘Too True’ and went through all the motions on their site but they returned me as ‘Guest’ so I guess I’ll be ‘Guest, TooTrue’ from now on with me typing in the latter, unless I’m missing something.
Great post sue, as always. I watched Netanyahu on YouTube. I thought it was a fine speech, even a great speech – calm, bold, dignified and with a restrained anger at the pack of jackals he was addressing at the alleged United Nations.
Your post has inspired me to rejoin this site after scratching my head at the new format and the huge time-wasting exercise in loading both the homepage and the comments page.
Too many little lefties at the BBC, all clamouring to be recognised as such as they emerge from the closet as bona fide anti-Israel and anti-West subversives. Even Robin Lustig, who I regarded as one of the more fair-minded of BBC hacks, had a recent blog post titled:
Will Obama get tough with Israel.
It’s like a bloody virus. Place really needs to be cleaned out.
Now is a good time to ask. What do readers think Palestinians should do (or say) to persuade those Israelis willing to be persuaded by reasoned argument that Palestinians can be trusted not to take violent advantage of any Israeli concessions.
Be warned the answers could easily be published on the BBC.
TooTrue again. Let’s see what happens now….
What happened to OdMTE’s comment? Now you see it, now you don’t?
TooTrue here,
I just recently became acquainted with Five Live message boards and tried to post a discussion yesterday. It was “hidden” because one of the “moderators” thought there was something objectionable about it. All I did was post a link to Netanyahu speech, identify it as a great speech and mention that he delivered it in front of a partisan pack at the UN.
Anyway the boards are closing tomorrow apparently after years in operation. And the BBC tells us it wants to know what we think. Right.
The BBC are closing the boards because they can’t silence the public as much as they try.
TooTrue here.
Well, at a very rough guess there were 50 people commenting on those boards (though I didnt check the UK one) and perhaps ten times that number lurking. So I would imagine it’s more of a big deal for the people involved than anyone else.
Problem is, the BBC has tremendous reach. But even with that reach and the billions showered on it by the public, many blogs run by BBC journalists get far less attention than this one. Robin Lustig, for example, often only gets two or three comments to a post.
B-BBC has built itself up from nothing. And that is to be admired.
So what am I actually saying? I’m not sure, except that it perhaps is not that much of a problem if the BBC censors us. The BBC cannot censor the internet.
Oops, forgot the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbfivelive/F2148565
I would just like to say a heartfelt thank you to anyone who has overcome the new system to comment on my thread.
It’s almost a record @13 comments (excluding the one that got away.)
You know that comedian who did his whole gig somewhere in front of just the one man in the audience, and when the comedian finished his routine, the man got up and began cleaning?
That’s me, that is.
I’m the comedian, and you represent the battle scarred remnants of an endangered species, almost extinct due to man made comment change.
One day there will be a scientific breakthrough…………
Meanwhile I hark back to the olden days when B-BBC was a heavenly mauve, and we frolicked freely and unregistered amongst the daffodils.
TooTrue
Well, I dunno, sue. I’ve seen posts of yours that have attracted 50, 60 comments. That’s a lot more than many BBC bloggers get on average for a post.
But yes, I also long for the good old days at B-BBC – when the site was quick to load and commenting was a breeze and the world was new.
Now my screen’s gone all blurry so I’m gonna save my eyesight and post this.
Thanks Too True,
but all those comments were in the olden days…….. maybe everyone will drift back, eh?
I always appreciate your blog posts Sue, even if I don’t get round to joining in the debate.
TooTrue
Yeah, maybe. Time will tell.
Im still here, Sue
Good.
BBC edits out ‘ISLAMIC JIHAD’ words from headline.
The name of the Islamic organisation in Gaza is officially:
‘ISLAMIC JIHAD’ – and all which that name implies; but the BBC
deliberately substitutes that name with its euphemistic and
misleading ‘Gaza militants’.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8275973.stm