Monthly Archives: March 2010

Two untypical BBC items to report.

The Culture Show BBC2 featured the Jewish Museum, soon to reopen after a £10 m refurbishment. Sharfraz Mazoor chatted to some well-known Jewish TV faces, and took us through various bits of British Jewish history. Which was nice.

Item two, Radicalization in Prison
BBC News 24 has been featuring Daniel Sandford’s report about this topic as ‘news.’ It even appeared slightly critical, and perhaps a tiny bit judgmental.
Which is – not nice, but comparatively frank for the Beeb.
Of course it’s not new, surely it’s been common knowledge for ages; and it goes without saying that they’re referring to ‘a distorted version of Islam,’ not the real version, which is peaceful.
There’s an upcoming documentary on R5 Sunday by Donal MacIntyre.

Back to abnormal with something more typical.

Melanie Phillips reveals how the PA, led by so-called moderate Mahmoud Abbas, really feels about ‘the liberation of their own land.’ They still regard a mass murdering suicide bomber as a heroine. This might be hard to reconcile with their so-called desire for peace. But not to worry. Jeremy Bowen had this sorted in 2003:

“these people are seen by Palestinians as heroes of their would-be independence movement, and it’s important for them to be mentioned [by Yasser Arafat] and it fulfils their ritualistic sloganising function”. [bless]
“Let’s not forget that before Israeli independence Messrs Shamir and Begin were regarded by the British as terrorists. They went on – in the case of Begin – to win the Nobel Prize for Peace.”

The BBC is currently much more interested in the untimely granting of planning permission for a few houses for Jews. Joe Biden’s visit was just in time for that, but, dammit, just too late for the ceremonial dedication of a public square to Dalal Mughrabi. Which was a shame.

It seems that many posters and bloggers assume that it goes without saying that the BBC is terminally biased against Israel and in favour of Muslims. So much so that many of them do literally allow it to go without saying, unless something exceptional comes up and prompts them to mention it in passing. If people are so resigned to the BBC’s bias that they just sigh and roll their eyes at it, it makes B-BBC, including myself, look a bit futile and old hat. Which is annoying.

Some months ago, we commented on an item on The London Breakfast Show, hosted by Wossy’s brother Paul and an actress called JoAnne Good.
They were interviewing Michael White, political editor of the Guardian.

In synch with both the rag he represents and its conjoined twin the BBC, this man bears considerable hostility to Israel. Both news organs are renowned for their anti-Zionist position, but the BBC alone is constrained by an inconvenient obligation to appear impartial.

These incompatible phenomena (hatred of Israel and the obligation to appear impartial) might condemn the BBC to a lifetime struggle, viz. maintaining an increasingly fragile charade that compels them to wriggle and contort in a doomed attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable.

But by designating Israel automatically guilty (on all counts, at all times,) they shift the entire middle ground, readjusting it till it’s accepted that all and sundry are steadfastly opposed to Israel. This allows partiality to masquerade as impartiality, solves the problem of irreconcilable anomalies and upholds the BBC Charter, all in one fell swoop.

Because of the BBC’s own shortcomings, namely their lack of rigor in tackling the complexities of the Israel Palestine conflict, BBC reporters probably rely on romantic Lawrence of Arabia type fantasies or instinctive suspicion of Jews to influence the decision over which side to regard as the goodie, and which the baddie.
Then all they have to do is swallow and regurgitate the Palestinian narrative, lock stock and fiction.

Michael White’s words on December 14th 2009 obviously met with the approval of the interviewing duo, because their chorus of mmmms in agreement floated audibly across the airwaves.

“In Israel they murder each other a great deal. The Israeli Defense Forces murder people because they don’t like their political style and what they’ve got to say and it only means that people more extreme come in and take their place.”

Some listeners found this highly offensive, and were persistent enough to engage with the complaints procedure, whereupon an unfortunate BBC employee named Andrew Bell was tasked to respond. It appears he set about adapting the regulation one-size-fits-all reply to suit the occasion. He conceded that the terminology was “not as exact as it might be,” but added that since Michael White’s meaning was clear to Andrew Bell, ( that Israel murders people willy-nilly if they “don’t like their political style,”) he decided that all awkward, contrary and pedantic Moaning Minnies could ‘away and bile their heeds’ to borrow a phrase from north of the border.

While the BBC Trust, or the BBC Itself are the sole adjudicators,
complaining about the BBC seems as useless, as Mitnaged on CiFWatch puts it, as shouting down a well.

However, this has just popped into my inbox. Honest Reporting has concluded that complaining to the BBC is still worth it!
“All complaints are logged, and there is no better way to make the BBC aware of your concerns.”

I often wonder if anyone from the BBC still glances at this website.