People accuse me of cherry picking when I present my arguments against the BBC’s one-sided reporting of matters related to Israel.
It’s my job to put my case. I’m not going to put theirs too. I’m acting for the prosecution so to speak. Do defence lawyers put the case for the prosecution and the prosecutors likewise argue on behalf of the defence? No they don’t, because they’re on opposite sides.
The BBC shouldn’t be on an opposite side. It shouldn’t be on any side, least of all on the particular side it has chosen.
We’re talking flotilla again I’m afraid. Jon Donnison’s report, Today R4 7:17 ( link) was painful. He asked people in Gaza if they think flotillas are good. By now everyone should know that they’re not actually carrying much humanitarian aid, so we can’t pretend that they’re intended to relieve a humanitarian crisis. So instead they have to find another away to defend them. They’re good now, they’re saying, because they show that the people of Gaza are not forgotten. Fat chance of that.
A left-wing Israeli is heard saying the blockade must be lifted. Could the inclusion of an Israeli voice be Donnison’s attempt to provide balance? The reason why there has to be a blockade seems to have escaped both her and Donnison.
Donnison mentioned last year’s violence on the Mavi Marmara “when nine activists were killed by the Israeli Navy” but fails to remind us that they were attacked with iron bars. That’s how he sees it, Panorama or no Panorama. All Jane Corbin’s work, disappeared down the memory hole of inconvenient truths.
Right at the end of the report, as if Donnison had remembered, belatedly and somewhat reluctantly, that we are supposed to regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation, he introduced the final Gazan pro-flotilla spokesperson as “no friend of Israel OR Hamas”
My point is that the BBC has no business openly and blatantly putting the case for the flotilla. It is a publicity stunt, cynically and deliberately designed to provoke loss of life, which will be mercilessly exploited by Israel’s enemies. If that happens, it will be regarded as a great success by the organisers. Nothing less will satisfy them.
The BBC is cherry-picking, and that is utterly wrong.
“The BBC shouldn’t be on an opposite side. It shouldn’t be on any side, least of all on the particular side it has chosen.”
Exactly Sue. Not ours, not theirs. They should be on nobody’s side (a definition of impartiality).
From various perspectives, all of Jon Donnison’s talking heads were critics of Israel and the blockade. As he found space for an Israeli voice criticical of her country’s policy, couldn’t he also have found space for another Israeli sympathetic to it?
well Greece has kicked in now against this charade
that from the Dutch just the other day
here about the Canadian ship
a ahem! “slightly different” interview teq.
(my how we need much more of this)
http://youtu.be/wqppKgiU8n
a couple of straight questions.
all it takes
🙁
The URL contained a malformed video ID. Sorry about that.
No mention of these Gazans from Donnison:
Gazans unimpressed by flotilla
Israeli claims over futility of flotilla receive reinforcement from surprising direction – Gazan businessmen who say it isn’t imports that are problem, it’s exports. ‘Gaza doesn’t need anymore humanitarian aid,’ says Gisha movement director
“The flotilla isn’t bringing things that reach the man on the street,” says Salah Ayash a textile manufactory owner in the strip who, until the beginning of the month worked with Israeli fashion labels who would produce their goods at his factory.
Did you hear that BBC? A Gazan businessman working with an Israeli fashion label?
The Greek government has intercepted boats from the flotilla attempting to leave Greek ports because it recognises the legality of the Israeli blockade under International Law. Not a murmur from the BBC, “The World’s Leading Broadcast Newsgathering Organisation™”:
Question: When can a country intercept a vessel?Background: Answer: If it clearly intends to illegally enter another country’s waters – as soon as it leaves its port of origin.
Of course the BBC is more interested in maintaining the lie that the blockade is illegal, just as it calls all Israeli settlements “illegal” without quoting any laws, court rulings or jurisprudence to prove it.
I’m delighted with this news about the Spanish “activists” too!
http://tinyurl.com/62tygha
No friend of Israel or Hamas eh?
Clearly an Arafat/Fatah supporter then!
With Hamas on one end of the sofa…and Fatah on the other…let no one say that the BBC doesn`t provide both sides of the argument!
Truly exhibiting the famous BBC sense of balance we`ve all come to know and expect!
You are perfectly welcome to cherry pick, this is the BIASED BBC blog. If what you post isn’t evidence of actual bias there are enough honest posters to highlight it, as it is you add to the mountains of proof of clear bias.
“The BBC is cherry-picking, and that is utterly wrong.”
Exactly; this should be shouted loud and often from the highest heights.
“Is there balance” should be one of the criteria applied to BBC reporting. And if it is consistently absent when reporting news about Israel then someone in Parliament or in the Law Courts, should be asking why is this?
Another news story the BBC will have to update… but I bet they won’t:
Report: Turkey probe reveals Irish ship in Gaza flotilla not sabotaged
Hat tip to Pounce_UK for catching the corrosion evidence before anyone else. 😎
The border with Egypt is open. If the BBC can’t ask anyone why they need to come by boat, they’re dishonest. Screw the rest of it.
even if you are cherry picking……..good
hey …if the bias wasn t there eh! 🙂
you provide links too, people can judge for
themselves
a case of don t shoot the messenger,(wink wink)
on the flotilla
check out the latest on philips online interesting
situation developing
Melanie’s blog
& on the greek situation regards it
“Hamas slams Greece for barring Gaza aid ship,”
from AFP, July 1,
where on earth is this paradise?
http://bob-mitchell.blogspot.com/2011/06/where-on-earth-is-this-paradise.html
please take the time to look at the photos……this is the place al beeb says is a humanitarian disaster zone and “the biggest prison on earth”
someone should show them the photos and challenge them on it
ltwf1964,
“where on earth is this paradise?”
Gosh…
They have buildings:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_7BUxgRoM2Q4/TR7hmesy3YI/AAAAAAAAMEQ/a0l1VumCG3s/s1600/North+Korea+Pictures.jpg
And shrubs:
http://www.travelfreehi.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/68_North_Korea.jpg
And people swimming:
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00789/beach_789259i.jpg
North Korea truly is paradise on earth!
Dez,
Were you thinking of organising a flotilla to North Korea?
Or are you saying that poverty in Gaza is because of Israel’s blockade, while the conspicuous wealth in Gaza is somehow unaffected by it?
Where’s the logic in that?
and I thought gaza had been levelled by Israel in operation cast lead
those magic buidings just reappeared overnight
if that’s a prison,can i go please?
Great pictures, but what an outrageously dodgy web site!
On a lighter note: http://www.flotillacruiseline.com/
‘We are all Hezbollah now’?
INBBC could have (but didn’t) mention, re-Hezbollah, it’s a typical Islamic attitude of Sharia law superseding that of justice for murder.
‘Jihadwatch’:
Hizballah’s head honcho Nasrallah: Arrests of members indicted in Hariri assassination will never happen
[Extract]:
“Unfortunately, for as long as Hizballah’s country-within-a-country with its own standing army has gone unchallenged in Lebanon and allowed to become ever more entrenched in society and government, there may indeed not be the political will in Lebanon to hold the group accountable.”
INBBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14004096
Tut, tut. Who would have thought it?: rich Muslim Arab ‘brothers’ ignore Gaza.
INBBC report:
“Palestinian Authority faces budget crisis”
[Extract]:
“Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called on ‘donors and our Arab brothers’ to come to their aid, saying that international donors – notably Arab countries – had failed to deliver promised funding.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14007645
Supplementary:
“Invasion of the Bling-ionaires: Meet Britain’s most jaw-droppingly ostentatious tourists who have supercars flown from the Middle East to UK by private jet”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1301419/Invasion-Bling-ionaires.html#ixzz1R3kXYhna
Another supplementary:
“The Arab Cars in London”
( 6 min video)
http://wn.com/The_Arab_cars_in_London
I’m surprised the BBC hasn’t yet tried to prove causality between this:
Greece crisis: Eurozone backs 12bn euros in aid
Eurozone finance ministers have approved the latest tranche of emergency help for the Greek economy.
They will release 12bn euros (£10.4bn, $17.4bn) in the next two weeks to help Greece meet spending commitments and avoid defaulting on its huge debts.
With this:
Greece arrests US captain of Gaza aid ship
The Greek authorities have arrested the captain of a boat that was due to carry activists to the Gaza Strip.
John Klusmire, a US citizen, is being held in custody at police headquarters in the port of Piraeus, near Athens.
He faces charges of trying to leave port without permission and of endangering the lives of passengers.
His vessel, the Audacity of Hope, was part of a flotilla planning to take humanitarian aid to Gaza in order to challenge the Israeli blockade.
Now, I know the Greeks are only doing it to give the finger to Turkey, but it plays into the whole “Austerity is an EU plot” and “Jews control everything” mindset. Maybe the Beeboids are being shy about it for now because they don’t want to give you the idea that maybe not everyone in the world is fanatically devoted to the “Free Gaza” cause.
Nobody bothered to ask why he needs a boat to cross over the border with Egypt. Again. I guess the BBC is back to the old facade that there isn’t one.
This isn’t a fight to help the Palestinians: it’s a fight to harm Israel.