On the back of a series about the difficulties some children must overcome to receive any education, Katya Adler’s report on the lengths to which Gazan children must go for ‘learning’ was one of the most egregious examples of biased reporting ever.
Repeated all day on BBC news 24, the project involves twinning British schools with schools situated in areas of conflict. As a project, it’s an updated version of the penpals everyone became immediately bored with after one compulsory exchange of stilted letters. With the interweb they don’t have the burden of writing anything, but can see each other’s cringemaking awkwardness in technicolour.
In passing Katya casually mentioned Palestinian gunmen and militants with a blasé: “Gaza is run by men who think Israel shouldn’t exist.” What she was referring to in that strangely infantilised language was Hamas’s genocidal aspirations towards Israel and their refusal ever to recognise it or renounce violence, enshrined in its charter and not up for modification.
When the BBC was created it begat twins too. Conjoined obligations. Its first duty was to report events fully and impartially; its twin was to be mindful that whatever was said, or unsaid, would influence public opinion.
The BBC’s obligation to inform is inseparable from its ability to inflame, then reflect opinion in a kind of never-ending circular continuum.
As well as creating and feeding an insatiable appetite for prurience, the BBC has awakened/created an addictive hunger for hearing bad things about Israel. This project fits the bill perfectly.
Perhaps they will be able to exchange information about becoming suicide bombers? Praise to Allah and peace be upon him.
the BBC has awakened/created an addictive hunger for hearing bad things about Israel
sue, sue, sue… if only you knew
There are two immutable truths about tv news coverage:
1. Anything about intractable, depressing problems – like the Middle East, Iraq, African civil wars and Mr Vance’s beloved Nornisland – drives viewers away. In droves.
2. Apart, that is, for a small, hard core of devotees/antagonistas, who create a large and furious correspondence analysing why each and every frame of every shot and each line of every script is crap. Israel by far the worst topic for this.
Whatever else the BBC is up to with Gaza, feeding a furious hunger for the coverage ain’t it. x
Yawn!
OMTE.
I can’t wait to see if this gets into your blog. With some sidesplittingly hilarious insults from your kindergarten. Cutting edge stuff. At the forefront of …oh never mind.
1. If anything about intractable depressing problems really does drive viewers away, there must be very few viewers left. So, the reason they conceal the nasty bits is fear of losing the ratings war ?
2. Am I right in assuming that, to you, I am a hard core fanatic, worrying and worrying at nothing? Or does that description fit yourself a bit more? Do you not think?
So, you agree the BBC is up to something with Gaza. Other than scrupulously reporting fully accurately and impartially as per the charter. The BBC charter, not the Hamas charter, it goes without saying. Which is literally what it does. Go. without.
Thanks Sue for telling it how it is.
Why doesn’t the bBBC show us the hate-filled lies the kids are force-fed? The text-books filled with falsehoods and distortions? What about schools across the border in Israel under the threat of rocket attack? Where kids learn physics and maths and grow up to become Nobel prize-winners?
With reports like this the BBC are knowingly and unashamedly fasely stoking up anti-Semitism with who knows what repercussions. I feel sorry for those kids – expendable pawns and puppets in the hands of master manipulaters. Shame on the Beeb for such a biased distortion.
Davieboy
sue
1. They still cover the nasty bits. It’s their public service duty. But there is no ratings pull in ME stories, however surprising you may find that.
2. I do think you’re overdoing it. But I recognise that you try to demonstrate your point, unlike the speak-your-bigotry machines who run this place.
I think the BBC are up to something in Gaza…. Reporting what goes on there.
“Reporting some of what goes on there.”
Which “nasty bits” have they covered?
Please provide links to BBC reports on the kind of brainwashing those kids go through at their PA and Hamas schools. MEMRI is full of the stuff broadcast by Fatah’s own TV demonising Jews and extolling the virtues of martyrdom to small children.
That’s pretty nasty isn’t it?
When have the BBC ever covered it, or even mentioned that stopping that kind of indoctrination was part of previous peace accords that the Palestinians have never fulfilled?
This always struck me a piece to gladden your heart.
And then, of course, there’s John Ware’s magisterial Panorama about the Islamic charity Interpal. This kicked off with a section about violent childhood propaganda.
That’s two Hilllhunt, one from 2006.
Can’t you do better than that?
here’s the currnet feed from the Middle east section of the BBC website – count the (negative) stories about Israel.
Sorry about “here’s the currnet feed from the Middle east section”.
Should be “Here’s the current feed from the Middle East section”
Bio
It’s a list of stories about the Middle East. The negativity is all yours.
You asked if the BBC had ever covered the issue of child indoctrination. They have.
I asked if the BBC had covered the “nasty bits”, as you call it, of the Palestinians, the indoctrination issue is a small if important part of that nastiness.
If as you say the Middle East isn’t a crowd puller then why so many stories on Israel? That’s ISRAEL, not just “the Middle East”.
There’s a list like that every single day with the emphasis on Israel in a negative light. There’s plenty of “nasty bits” to report on the Palestinian side but instead the BBC continues with its narrative of bad Israelis and poor suffering Palestinians. Why?
And please don’t tell me it’s because the Israelis really are the bad guys – we’re talking about BBC bias and unbalanced reporting here, not pushing one agenda or another, but if there is an agenda being pushed it’s as clear as daylight which one it is.
The negativity is all the BBC’s, and that’s clear to anyone. Except you of course, but then you’re as interested in fairness as the BBC is and twice as obtuse and arrogant in your response to criticism.
BBC:Downplaying Sderot’s Suffering
Honest Reporting has this:
“As part of its Hunger to Learn series, the BBC’s Katya Adler “meets children in Gaza whose schooling has been repeatedly interrupted by conflict.” Undoubtedly, Palestinian children have suffered as a result of difficult conditions in Gaza. However, Adler’s report demonstrates typical BBC bias:
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<div>The report implies that Israel deliberately bombed a primary school during the recent Gaza conflict. Israel’s motivations for taking military action are subtly questioned: “Israel says this is in response to rocket and mortar fire by Gaza militants, aimed at Israeli citizens.” Does the BBC believe it possible that Israel took military action in Gaza simply for the sake of it?</div>
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Indeed, while Israel does not deliberately target schoolchildren, the same cannot be said of Palestinian terrorists who have deliberately launched rocket attacks at specific times when Israeli children are travelling to their schools, considering it an achievement if a rocket lands (as they have done on numerous occasions) on schools or kindergartens.
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<div>Adler discusses the mental scars of Gazan children due to Operation Cast Lead, referring to psychological and social problems and difficulty concentrating. While this may be the result of Israel’s three-week operation, the same descriptions could be equally applied to the Israeli children of Sderot who have suffered from 8 years of rocket attacks from Gaza.”</div>
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Sorry for all the HTML. I guess that’s what happens when you copy and paste something from the interweb.