The recent escalation of rocket attacks from Gaza is of little interest to the BBC. Scanty reporting treats Israelis impersonally, while Palestinian individuals are likely to be given names and ages.
Reporters know that subtly empathetic wording will have one effect, just as distancing, dehumanising phrasing will have another. Why should the BBC use these tactics at all, let alone apply them to one side and not the other?
Because they think we are stupid? Luckily for them, many of us are.
For example the Jerusalem Post gave a brief account of an attack. Nothing melodramatic, just giving a few names; painting a picture, as you would if you were concerned.
Here’s a report which calls a terrorist a terrorist. It’s pro Israel, but it doesn’t shy away from quoting speech from the Al-Qassam Brigades. More accurate because it’s not crippled by political correctness.
We know which side the BBC is on. Not only do they apply journalistic tactics such as distancing or empathy to substantive incidents like rocket attacks which they are obliged to report, but if they can get away with it they omit huge swathes of subtle material altogether, skewing the picture heavily against Israel.
When the BBC reported the Fogel family murders they used the term “a Jewish settler family” under the headline “Palestinian kills five Israelis in West Bank.” No details, only inverted commas, inserted first in one place, then altered, making an already awkwardly-phrased sentence look more absurd in their efforts to dehumanise an horrific act.
While the BBC is obsessed with blaming only Israel’s construction work in ‘settlements-illgal-under-international-law’ for obstructing the peace process, an erroneous theory repeated so often that it is embedded in the collective Brains of Britain, they are silent on the real, fundamental, immovable obstacles to peace. The most obvious goes unnoticed. Hamas doesn’t want peace at all, and Fatah wants it as an interim measure only, for neither can ever renounce violence or recognise Israel. Why not? Because they have indoctrinated the people so thoroughly that they’d never get away with it. Not only their people. The Guardian and its cronies espouse such an enthusiastic pro Palestinian militancy that when they thought PaliLeaks revealed that concessions were being discussed, they were mortified by what they saw as a betrayal by craven Palestinian negotiators.
The glorification of terrorism is newsworthy because it is a massive obstacle to peace, second only to the antisemitism inherent in the Koran that makes the Arab World’s acceptance of Israel so inconceivable. If there’s ever to be peace, glorification of martyrdom and terrorists must stop and education must start.
If the BBC paid half as much attention to these crippling practices as they do to empathising with the Palestinians, even people who haven’t heard of Barry Rubin would have a chance to see reason.
The BBC influences people who make the decisions that affect us all. Even if individual MPs look beyond the BBC for information, education and entertainment, public opinion exerts pressure on our leaders just as the man in the mosque exerts pressure over his political and religious masters. Just as we beg the Muslim media to re-educate their public, we equally beseech our BBC to do likewise unto ours.
The BBC’s reporting or the murder of five Jewish Israelis was noticeable for its lack of photos of the Fogel family, however the BBC’s report concerning the death of two Palestinians killed by the Israeli military near the ‘no go zone’ does include a picture of one of the Palestinian dead along with the description ‘Funeral of Emad Faragallah, one of two 17-year-olds killed at the Gaza-Israel border ‘.
I am not a happy Goat – http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2011/03/bbc-humanising-palestinians-after-de.html
Petition – Stop The PA and HAMAS Hate Training Now!
I think the BBC is a lost cause.
The same old stuff comes out time after time.
“Although members of Hamas’s military wing rarely carry out attacks, the Israeli military says it holds the group responsible for all militant activity in the Gaza Strip.”
The first phrase is stated as a FACT. No ‘Hamas says’ to be seen. But ‘Israeli military SAYS’ comes hot on its heels.
Israel maintains a buffer zone along the border fence, where Gaza militants have planted bombs and explosives targeting Israeli troops in the past.
Israel often opens fire on people who IT SAYS go too close to the fence to stop attacks by militants.( but you can’t trust what they say- they’ll open fire on anybody- proved by the next statement…….)
Dozens of people have been killed in this way, many civilians.
And what is the continuing story? No, not the Fogel family. It’s more important to keep that stolen Rodin statue on the front page of the middle east news.
It can’t be accidental. It has to be a conscious editorial decision.
Agreed. The BBC’s editorial policy is biased so as to deliberately demonize Israel at every opportunity, although the BBC disputes this.
I hope the BBC is noticing the problems we’re having with the human shield issue in Libya. All morning News 24 has been featuring people debating at great length the mission that was aborted because they saw some humans hanging out in the target area.
Why should we believe this, I’m thinking, when no one believes Col Richard Kemp or anyone else who points out how much trouble Israel takes to avoid collateral damage. And unlike that situation, so far nobody is bombarding us with rockets.
Did they mention that a couple of those human shields were Beeboids? Only there to cover the story, invited by Ghaddafi, of course.
I heard that on the World Service today. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard the BBC mention that Israel consistently tries to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties and aborts strikes on Palestinian terrorists if civilians are in the area. I don’t think they’ve even mentioned it preceded by the disdainful Israel says.