One of the most loathsome aspects of the BBC is how it advances an anti-Israeli agenda by leaving out information which might make at least some people question the “independence” of what it reports. A Biased BBC reader notes…
“The lazy journalismof the BBC ensures that anti-Israeli voices are not challenged even when theyuse deception to spread their lies: The words of Tom MacMaster, an American student in Edinburgh who posed as a gaygirl in Syria in order to propagate his anti_Israeli views. This is what he has posted on the pro Palestinian ‘Media Watch’ website:
‘The truth is that there is no more violent society than the Israeli society.Since its establishment, Israel launched six major wars against its Arabneighbors. These were in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1978, 1982, and the present warwhich has continued since March 29, 2002 against the Palestinian people. Nosociety on Earth is as armed to teeth as the Israeli society. Israel is theonly country in the Middle East with stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction:nuclear, biological, and chemical. No matter what means the Israeli propaganda machine may use, it won’t be ableto hide the fact that Israelis are aggressors, occupiers, and land grappers(grippers). The settlements they have built in the Palestinian territoriessince 1967 are symbols of greed.’
His posts as the gay girl in Syria are little different when it comes todescribing Israeli actions and history….he is a well known anti-Israeliactivist but you wouldn’t know this from the BBC.
But you won’t here any of this from the BBC…just that he was using his’deception’ to get across the truth that otherwise would be overlooked….theBBC does not look into his ‘truth’ and examine either his own history and viewsnor his intentions…nor indeed those of his wife, Britta Froelicher, whopromotes the idea of a one nation state…that is, no more Israeli state,merely a state within which Jews live (in peace and harmony) with Palestinians.
MacMasters studies at St Andrews University where his wife works in theirCentre for Syrian Studies, as an Associate Fellow, partially funded to the tuneof £105,000 (just over $170,000) by the Syrian government…yes, the Syriangovernment.
Further regarding funding of Universities the Centre for Social Cohesion published this report on foreign donations and influence:
A Degree of Influence: The funding of strategically important subjects in UKuniversities highlights the foreign money that is being injected into thosesubjects that are designated of ‘strategic importance’ by the UK government,and the ways in which the cash is being converted into influence at universities on a range of levels. The report discovers that universities have insufficient safeguards in place to prevent donations affecting the way universities are run. There is clearevidence that, at some universities, the choice of teaching materials, the subjectareas, the degrees offered, the recruitment of staff, the composition of advisoryboards and even the selection of students are now subject to influence from donors. These problems are heightened by the undemocratic nature of certain donor governments.’
Just WHY do so many academics want to boycott Israel? The BBC has no interest in such questions…
Thanks so much for yet another fine post – very eye-opening on this rascal, about whom I knew zilch (until now).
It would save an awful lot of licensepayers’money if the BBC were to sack its middle eastern staff and just quote from Mein Kampf.
Heard Eddie Mair puff this up as a lead story on his “P.M” show yesterday.
If it is a 5pm news bulletin-then why does it give houseroom to a weird liar/fantasist to indulge his storytelling so as to “reveal a general truth”?
That it is not is not only my point-that it appears on a news programme (and not the bad drama or a Jackanory type of serial)- is despicable.
But again with the BBC-when it comes to Israel, you can make it up and say whats “on your heart or on your mind”-hell, those paid liars are paid to make it up all the time, so why should blogging fantasists not feed their poison into the mix at Wood Lane!
To be honest-if it`s not Sue, Israelnurse or the other good people we all know like Mel and Robin etc-don`t give them houseroom either!
What a surprise that this guy’s line on Israel matches BBC editorial policy exactly.
It’s a shocker….
Hang on, where is the link to this alleged post? Palestinian Media Watch is not pro-Palli but points out all the anti-Israel Pali propaganda, much of which we hear as gospel from the BBC. But I can’t find anything from MacMaster anywhere else except this criticism of CNN for failing to report on Israel’s “genocide” against the Palestinians. It’s from an Al-Jazeera.info, and is not the media organization of the same name. It’s definitely an Israel-hate site. I only found this on Harry’s Place, which has posts about the story but little else besides something about a paper his wife wrote criticizing Syria and links to Edinburgh Uni’s “Students for Justice in Palestine” group. And even there there’s only something from a ‘Tom’, and no listing of his full name, so no hard proof. There’s even a lengthy quote of another anti-Israel diatribe supposedly from this guy, but no link.
I would suggest that nobody is going to listen to us if there is no link to the source.
Thank you in advance.
DP, You are right to be suspicious.
“The truth is that there is no more violent society than the Israeli society…” is not by MacMaster. It’s by Hassan El-Najjar as can be seen here:
http://aljazeerah.info/Editorials/2002/July%202002/cnn_runs_israeli_propaganda_news.htm
To be fair it is credited to MacMaster on the index page:
“CNN runs Israeli propaganda news to smear the Palestinian people By Tom MacMaster”
http://aljazeerah.info/Sections/media_watch.htm
But even though it’s obviously a typing error (a few names in the list are ‘out of sync’); the person who posted it to Harry’s Place seemingly couldn’t resist anyway.
Why didn’t he provide a direct link? There’s your answer.
And the author of this post on B-BBC just slavishly copied it without question. So much for “lazy journalism”!
As for MacMaster’s only post on “Aljazeerah – media watch pages”, it’s a pretty straight-forward report of a demo against CNN. Not posted to Aljazeerah by MacMaster but copied an pasted by somebody else.
B-BBC FAIL.
Dezzie, still only discussing typos and other technical mistakes. When, oh when, will he start to discuss any of the well documented issues on here; such as the Global Warming scam and the BBC’s overt anti-semitic take on the Middle East problem! I think that would be too difficult for the poor little dear.
I hardly think misattributing a post, especially one that’s at the core of a blog post, can be blithely dismissed as a “typo”.
Just for a second, I misread that as “masturbating”. I can’t think why.
MacMaster is an anti-Israel crank, as is his wife. There’s no question of that. Even if he didn’t write the diatribe concerned.
DP
that’s it….the game is up
this blog will have to be shut down forthwith-this is just not good enough
can we get nothing right?it’s a disgr
oh,wait…….it was just a trollboi doing his trolling thing trollingly
phew!That was close……. 😉
meanwhile-notice how al-beebzeera “tackle”s this blog liar
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13749156
pay particular note to the sources it refers to-
electronic intifada
guardian (natch)
new statesman (natch again)
electronic intifada…..wel well well
who woulda thought it,eh? 😉
‘pay particular note to the sources it refers to’
Indeed.
And no comments enabled.
How… ‘unique’.
David P is correct. Googling “Media Watch” just brings up the association founded by Mary Whitehouse. I assume David V was not referring to that organisation! Without a link the accusations do not stand up, and you can guarantee Dez or Scott will be on to point this out. And lo and behold…
Dez, you also forgot to point out that David V has misspelt “hear”. You are slipping.
The role of site proof (have to be very careful of typos there) reader could be viewed as a service, and on matters of fact I do value corrections and clarifications.
The inevitable snide editorialising in complement is however tiresome, but as equally foot-shooting it serves as entertainment value, one supposes.
what was that?
site poof?
What the BBC doesn’t report:
Four Palestinians killed in at the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital after parents of those killed on the Golan blamed the heads of Palestinian groups based in Damascus: two people were shot by militants of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and two of senior leadrs were killed.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Jun-07/Four-Palestinians-killed-in-Syria-camp-witnesses.ashx#axzz1Oc2qnbfg
Videos of Palestinians fighting the leadership of PFLP-GC in the refugee camp:
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/mass-shooting-reported-yarmouk-palestinian-refugee-camp-syria-video
If the person seen shot dead in that video had been shot by an IDF soldier it would have been headlines not only on the BBC Mid East section, but right across – the whole BBC news services. Tell me i’m wrong Dez/Scott, and then tell me there’s no bias.
“Since its establishment, Israel launched six major wars against its Arab neighbors. These were in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1978, 1982,”
Lets look at tnose dates again:
1948, Israel invadec by the neighbours.
1956, Weren’t the Brits and French involed in that.
1967, Every arabic nation parks up on the border in which to wipe Israel off the map and they complain when Israel gets the first punch in.
1978:????
1982, so after lebanon allows terroists to launch attack after attack on israel it complains when Israel finally decided to sort out the thugs next door..
You know what Tom MacMaster seems like the sort of person who will only understand a baseball bat between the eyes. Me thinks I should pay him a visit and utter ‘Allah ackba’ as I pound his brain into jelly. If you read the news and hear he is eating out of a straw you know where to look for who did this to him.
P.S
Don’t tell him I’m CoE as I really him to beleive it was a muslim who put him in a wheel chair.
This seems like the right time for me to own up to the fact that I am actually a lesbian Hamas-supporting eco-activist who hates Sarah Palin. Sorry for misleading you all, but I thought it best I finally come clean before I take up my new job at the BBC. Apparently I’m exactly the sort of person they want for the Today programme.
I may be premature but it is just possible that global warming is over. Watts is all over it.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/14/all-three-of-these-lines-of-research-to-point-to-the-familiar-sunspot-cycle-shutting-down-for-a-while/
The odds are strong that the sun is going into a Maunder like minimum which means temperatures will fall and we might be ice-skating on the Thames as we did last time this happened.
Nothing on the BBC yet.
It won’t be Man Made Global Warming anymore, it will be Man Made Climate Change instead. We will all be coerced into covering our roofs with grass, as they do in parts of the Alps, for insulation. Sensible industry, cars, flying etc. will still be virtually banned as the energy will be needed to power up the grid so people can be grateful for a little warmth. It will still be done with the intention of controlling individuals as the current scam is.
Excellent piece, David.
More on what the BBC doesn’t report – but Spanish TV does – see 18 minutes into this video a report on the opening of the movenpick Hotel, Gaza: http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/telediario/telediario-21-horas-12-06-11/1127305/
Instead – more misery on last night’s The World tonight programme…..
Be careful about praising RTVE. Their coverage of Israel is even more blatantly anti-Israel than the BBC, Spain is, according to all surveys, the most antisemitic country in Europe.
Here’s the story of a documentary in their series of “Spaniards in the world” about Spaniards in Israel in that was withdrawn (censored) because of complaints from “Pro-Palestinians” that it didn’t deal with “the occupation”:
http://herutx.blogspot.com/2011/01/tve-elimina-el-capitulo-de-espanoles-en.html
Or see it here:
By the way, other episodes dealing with Spaniards living in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Cuba and other such delightful places were broadcast as planned.
It would be quite daft for Spain to be anti-Israel. It’s clear that the re-islamisation of Spain is next on the agenda once they have destoyed Israel. That’s why one of their groups uses “Cordoba” in its name. Short-sighted and stupid, although I remember a recent Spanish PM say that he supports Israel unreservedly.
Jew hatred is in Spain’s DNA.
Who is this Spanish MP? He or she must be the only one.
Google “alliance of civilisations”, then Google “spain, antisemitism”.
I misread you, you said “Spanish PM” not “Spanish MP”.
You must be refering to Aznar who while he was PM said no such thing, in fact he was disgraced at the UN after the Madrid bombings when he tried to pressure them to declare that the bombs were the work of ETA rather than Islamists.
It’s true that since he’s left power he is an outspoken supporter of Israel, but he’s considered by most Spaniards to be a fascist.
When you’ve Googled the keywords I suggest above try “aznar madrid bombings”.
Try this “report” on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Fruit of Spain’s “Alliance of Civilisations”:
http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20110524/portada-hermanos-musulmanes/434400.shtml
Thanks for the links. Yes, it was Aznar. Reading the links you provided, he is also a climate change realist too. It’s a pity he didn’t tell the truth about the bombings and then used them for his own political ends.
I think any Spaniards who don’t support Israel are stupid and short-sighted as I stated above. If Israel goes, they will be under attack within weeks.
From a previous thread:
http://biasedbbc.tv/2011/06/flying-porkies.html
Thank you for your correspondence concerning the Climate Change page on the BBC’s Weather website. Firstly, it is worth pointing out that in terms of impartiality, the BBC has come to the view that the weight of evidence no longer justifies equal space being given to the opponents of the consensus.
The same obviously applies to Jews and Israel. It’s only a matter of time before complaints about biased reporting from the Middle East receive the same boiler-plate response.
Thank you for your correspondence concerning Israeli war crimes on the BBC’s Middle East News website. Firstly, it is worth pointing out that in terms of impartiality, the BBC has come to the view that the weight of evidence no longer justifies equal space being given to the opponents of the consensus.
In answer to the BBC’s very own rebuttal service, ez, the point still stands ….the BBC fails to investigate MacMaster’s background and presents him merely as someone with a deep concern for humanity etc allowing him to claim his words are all based on truth without prejudice…..when clearly he is a well known anti-Israeli activist along with his wife…….
This is Media Watches wrong attribution…
CNN runs Israeli propaganda news to smear the Palestinian people By Tom MacMaster
http://aljazeerah.info/Sections/media_watch.htm
but the words might as well have been MacMasters as he demonstrates in this report he puts together himself…and note not an Israeli voice……
Protesting CNN for its biased coverage By Tom MacMaster
Tracey Green who had come with Refuse and Resist explained why her group endorsed the call, “We stand with the people around the world and not with what the US government is doing by supporting Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians.”
Yosef Abuneaj said, “Every major human rights organization such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem has said that Israel targets civilians for political purposes. Not one human rights organization supports the ludicrous notion that Israel does not target civilians. Since far more Palestinian civilians are thus killed by Israeli forces than the other way around, it is clear that the Israeli army is engaged in far greater terrorism than anything Palestinians are capable of doing.”
And in MacMaster’s very own words
(“While the narrative voıce may have been fictional, the facts on thıs blog are true and not mısleading as to the situation on the ground.”
he tells us) under the pseudonym ‘Amina’….
http://hurryupharry.org/2011/06/13/the-anti-israel-propagandists-who-faked-the-amina-arraf-gay-girl-blog/
‘As soon as I post this, I know, the defenders of the Holy Nation will come and denounce me, will ask why it is that I do not see their cause as holy and my own people, my own heritage, my own history, as nothing more than the squawkings of baboons.
Don’t laugh; I am sure they will come. And they will again and again demonstrate their arrogance and their ignorance. When not claiming that their innate superiority in all things means that democracy is not for the likes of me (after all, how else to justify their state?) or that we are all needing just a firm, pale hand to guide us, they will show their ignorance of history.
I for one know my own history. And I know my own country. I know that Jaulan was lost after the Syrians had agreed to cease fire. I know who started that war; it wasn’t us. I know that the Israelis hold Jaulan because they would steal our water and need a nice platform to keep Damascus in their gunsights.
I know that there is no difference between what keeps them there and what took Saddam to Kuwait … I know of American sailors who died to keep the world from knowing … I know that their own generals admitted that all the ‘vicious wicked Syrian attacks’ were provoked by them, not us …
I know also of the ethnic cleansing that they undertook up there; 131,000 people made homeless so that Russian migrants might have a place to illegally live.
And whatever happens in Palestine, no Syrian can forget that they stole our land and made our people homeless.’
The ‘Gay Girl in Damascus’ blog is now only available to those who are invited to read it…..I wonder why…..does MacMaster not want you trawling through the archives to find more of ‘Amina’s’ anti-Israeli/Jewish comments?
It appears this post is incorrect in stating that Tom McMaster is a St Andrews student; according to the source below, he is a student at Edinburgh, and his wife is first year PhD student currently on a leave of absence.
http://thetanjara.blogspot.com/2011/06/edinburgh-st-andrews-universities-on.html