Interesting catch here by another eagle-eyed B-BBC reader…It related to this story.
Scroll over to the Jon Donnison “analysis” box…
“The BBC’s Jon Donnison, in the West Bank town ofRamallah, says it is not yet clear exactly what happened.
But it is not uncommon for the Israeli navy to open fireon fishing boats it feels are too far out at sea, he adds.”
Our reader ask “What is the relevance of the second line?”
Simple – Jews= bad.
Wonder could Helen Thomas get a gig at the BBC, I believe she is now looking for a job?
I posted here that he actually says, “Israel… firing upon small boats…”.
Another stealth edit? it now says:
It is not uncommon to hear machine-gun fire out at sea early in the morning off the Gaza coast.
Israel often fires warning shots at Palestinian fishing vessels that it says have strayed too far out.
Indeed.
But a telling, if sad, metaphor for the state of BBC ‘reporting’ and ‘editorial’ if it does turn out this is how this story has been handled (they are not ‘getting’ this internet thing, caches, etc, very well, are they? Comes to something that I tend to accept more readily the word of various independent bloggers, even without subsequent URL links (those these usually crop up), than our in theory objective, professional, £3.5B national broadcaster):
So we go from:
‘it is not yet clear exactly what happened.’
To being pretty clear that:
‘it is not uncommon for the Israeli navy to open fire on fishing boats it feels are too far out at sea,’
to being equally clear, but now with a totally different factual basis:
‘it is not uncommon to hear machine-gun fire out at sea early in the morning off the Gaza coast.
Israel often fires warning shots at Palestinian fishing vessels that it says have strayed too far out.’
All with no acknowledgement that they are making it up and playing fast and loose as they go along, and/or get caught out?
Unique.
I do declare this may warrant a request for clarfification which, if it turns out this has transpired as we suspect, will form the basis of a major complaint.
And we know they really hate those. But maybe some dozy media might pick up that the BBC and its reporters making things up to suit prejudices really isn’t what one should be forced to pay for.
I saw this yesterday and I just thought ‘there they go again’ and went elesewhere. Even I couldn’t be bothered to note it or complain, thus the BBC’s bias wears us down.
“Nil carborundum illegitimis”
(Don’t let the bastards grind you down)
It’s definitely a stealth edit. This morning the article spoke of “firing upon”
Another interesting point: the title of the article labels the people killed as “militants” (in inverted commas). The quote from Israel in fact calls them a squad of terrorists, while Al-Aqsa Brigades speak of their men being killed. So, who exactly is calling them “militants”? Easy answer: the BBC.
Surely the unbiased headline should be “Israeli Navy kills four Palestinian “terrorists” off Gaza”, and then let readers make up their minds whether the Israeli claim is likely to be true or not. (another easy answer: even if they were training, they were hardly
practising how to catch halibut…)
Just Journalism is on the case too:
BBC diminishes evidence of terrorist links
BBC – All about Israel. The BBC is the worst place to go for news, Israel, Gaza, Palestine, Israel, Israel, Israel…
Right now on the Middle East section.
“Biden says US seeking new ways to address Gaza crisis”
“Europeans ‘could play Gaza role”
“Q&A: Deadly Israel convoy raid”
“Guide: Gaza under blockade”
“Israeli navy kills four off Gaza”
“Israel ‘to reject raid inquiry”
“Israel apologises for spoof video on Gaza flotilla”
“Israel’s raid puts Gaza blockade back in spotlight”
“ME anger at Israeli ‘escalations”
“Israel deflects nuclear pressure”
“Has Israel lost lone regional Muslim ally Turkey?”
The BBC’s obsession is a healthy one for them and all leftists as Muslim daily atrocities can go unreported or buried.
Just go here: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/photographs-of-battered-israeli-commandos-show-new-side-of-raid/?hp
A side of truth the state broadcaster will ignore!
On BBC World this morning there was a report that four Palestinians in diving suits had been shot by the Israelis. Judging by the way this report was headlined and presented one would assume that the Israelis had simply shot dead four Palestinians who happened to be wearing diving suits, possibly on their way to a fancy dress ball. Somewhere in the middle of the report there was a palpably begrudging admission that the four Palestinians had in fact been armed.
If this story was being honestly reported, it would have used the most relevant description of the four Palestinians as its headline; namely that the incident involved “four armed Palestinians”. The wearing of diving suits is secondary to the matter, but then this is the BBC which never misses an opportunity, however subtle, to suggest to its audience that Israel must be in the wrong.
what is this “west bank” of which they speak???
could it be Judea and Samaria perhaps,or maybe the west bank of the euphrates river?
Yes, that’s the same “West Bank” that was originally designated to be part of the State of Israel in the Mandate.