20 Responses to DICK AND THE BEEB

  1. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:
    August 17, 2012 at 12:08 pm

    As the link says … any media outlet that publishes his pseudo-scoops is irresponsible.

       12 likes

  2. Roland Deschain says:
    August 17, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    Before Soothsayer swoops to pounce, I should point out it’s spelt gullibility. 🙂

       0 likes

  3. wallygreeninker says:
    August 17, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    Elder has now done an update in which he gives a table of different media outlets scoring them from A to F on how they handled the story – none of the ones he lists come out very well:
    “And the lion’s share of the blame goes to the BBC, because their publication of the story and interview of the Israel-hater gave cover for many other outlets to run the story themselves, simply by quoting the Beeb.”

    http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/media-scorecard-on-secret-memo-fiasco.html

       16 likes

  4. David Preiser (USA) says:
    August 17, 2012 at 2:27 pm

    I never heard of this guy before. Another useful Jew, I guess. But it’s amazing how the BBC so quickly zeroed in on this fringe agitator. Because he’s anti-Israel, they’re interested. I wonder which Beeboid(s) follow him on Twitter? Or at least have acquaintances stupid enough to who forwarded his “scoop” to them. Then they run with it. Can’t wait for the retraction and apology……

    Also, I do hope that photo the BBC has for the story isn’t another Iranian fake. And I see the caption reveals another reason for the BBC to like Iran:

    Iran has the largest and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East

    Wake me up when the BBC rushes to report something from the other side of the issue without even remotely checking the credibility of the source.

       13 likes

    • Backwoodsman says:
      August 17, 2012 at 3:31 pm

      Not normally lost for words, but does this constitute an all time beeboid low ?
      ‘If we close our eyes and cross our fingers and wish , weally, weally hard, it must be true ‘!

         15 likes

    • Sue says:
      August 17, 2012 at 3:53 pm

      David P.,
      Never heard of the guy? 🙁 Silverstein is notorious.
      See here, here and here, and note my comment on Wednesday’s open thread.

         11 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        August 17, 2012 at 3:59 pm

        Thanks, Sue. I do remember your comment from the other day, but that was the first time I’ve heard of Silverstein. Can’t follow all the fringe loonies. It’s enough work trying to keep up with all the anti-Israel propaganda that’s already out their in the mainstream.

           9 likes

    • DJ says:
      August 17, 2012 at 4:37 pm

      A ‘diverse’ arsenal – sounds like the BBC heard about Iran having enriched uranium and got the wrong end of the stick.

         8 likes

  5. Sir Arther grebe-streebling says:
    August 17, 2012 at 4:32 pm

    It is with the greatest miss-fortune that I have discovered (on the BBC web site no less) that the Israelites have been putting Palastinian babies in to huge vats marked Solent Green.

       16 likes

    • Ian Hills says:
      August 19, 2012 at 5:56 am

      I’ll never forget a Newsnight item about the occupied territories being short of water, thanks to Israel. The intro shot was a toddler in a skullcap drinking from a glass. The message was clear – go for the kids.

         6 likes

  6. David Preiser (USA) says:
    August 17, 2012 at 4:47 pm

    I see now that the BBC’s Jonathan Marcus is scrambling to cover his ass. Hey, maybe it’s really Israeli propaganda they sent out just to scare Iran. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

    ‘Leaked Israel memo’: propaganda or Iran war plan?

    So it’s okay to report this nonsense and interview the guy now, because it might be a fake story for a different reason! And just in case anyone doubts the warmongering tendencies of the Jews, even if this story is sheer fantasy, we’re reminded at the end that Israel is really, really, mad at Iran and “will not flinch”. Brilliant journalism.

       10 likes

  7. Guest Who says:
    August 17, 2012 at 6:19 pm

    And the BBC is found to show essentially zero ability to distinguish fact from fiction in its zeal to push the idea that it is publishing a scoop, disclaimers notwithstanding.

    That would be…?

    ‘The BBC is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites’

    Maybe best they adopt a twitter header approach on all ‘reporting’, and simply go for…

    The BBC is not responsible

       3 likes

  8. jah says:
    August 17, 2012 at 7:02 pm

    Surely this type of cock up is becoming more common on all media platforms with the constant redundancies. Look at the number of tabloid sensations which turn out to be based on a few tweet accounts. Lifting stories from Wikipedia is well attested so picking up daft stories from blogs is to be expected. With so few editors left and subeditors having become extinct
    , we can expect more stories in which the journo didn’t check his facts. It is of course the silly season and David is being a bit coy about admitting the blog post he wrote yesterday advocating a war with Iran and suggesting it would have few casualties. As if.

       0 likes

    • Span Ows says:
      August 17, 2012 at 7:25 pm

      “Surely this type of cock up is becoming more common on all media platforms with the constant redundancies”

      Please, tell us you’re not laying this at the feet of redundancies? Will this be the ploy over the next few years, it wuz the cutz wat corzed it?

         10 likes

  9. jonsuk says:
    August 19, 2012 at 12:31 am

    does anyone watch The Review Show? What a load of lefty bollocks, and that’s just the guests let alone the drivel that’s discussed

       2 likes

  10. Leftie-Loather says:
    August 19, 2012 at 8:28 am

    “Surely this type of cock up is becoming more common on all media platforms with the constant redundancies”.

    But we don’t HAVE TO fund “all” faulty “media platforms” though!, do we? Dick head!

       5 likes

  11. deegee says:
    August 19, 2012 at 9:11 am

    There is a well-known trial lawyer’ s trick called putting it into the jury’ s mind. It goes like this:
    Lawyer: Mr. X are you an active pedophile?
    Opposing lawyer: Objection.
    First lawyer: I withdraw the question.

    The judge then orders the question removed from the written record but it is impossible to remove it from the jurors’ minds.

    I suspect it will take the BBC much longer than the court to remove this story from the record and it will never leave the reader/listener’s mind.

       4 likes

  12. deegee says:
    August 19, 2012 at 9:19 am

    On Silverstein, Responsible media and Ethics in Journalism Taking bets that Marcus will not even suffer as much as a reprimand for this piece and that Silverstein will reappear in the BBC as a source in the future.

    Over the past two days, most of the people in Israel (ourselves included), have seen news reports all over the media, detailing the “Israeli Iran Attack Plan”, allegedly originating from one Richard Silverstein, an American Anti-Israeli blogger.
    Silverstein, whose lack of integrity is shown by his claims to have never visited http://www.fresh.co.il though he has an active account, which he used to write 11 posts (the 12th was an attempt to publish classified information and resulted in deletion and a six month suspension of his account – suspension which was ended over a year ago), published yesterday a translation of what he claimed to have been a document obtained from “a high-level Israeli source who received it from an IDF officer”.
    Since we can’t read minds, we can only guess whether Silverstein source actually exist, and whether the source was informed on this “attack plan”. What we don’t need to speculate about, is the fact the first publication of the said document (in a different version, which defined it as “an optimistic scenario for an attack in Iran” and clearly stated that it was based on foreign and non-classified sources and on the author’s own imagination) – was published four days before Silverstein’s publication, right here, on this website, in the Army and Security Forum, as a thread which was started by the forum’s moderator, Sirpad, on behalf of one of the forum’s most veteran and respected users, who was the original author of the document (yes, he and non-other).
    Since we have no expectations that a man who dedicates his life to causing harm to the State of Israel and its citizens, will be honest enough to admit that his “scoop” is neither scoop nor his, we were hoping that at least the Israeli Media, which rushed to quote Silverstein, Will know to give Sirpad, the real author, and original place of publication, their due credit. Needless to say they we were disappointed. Since yesterday there were articles in NRG, YNET, Channel 2, Ma’ariv (whose printed version did point out that Silverstein wasn’t in fact the first publisher of the story, but failed to name Sirpad, The real author, or fresh.co.il and identified the true origin as “an Israeli Forum” ), Israel army radio and “Israel Hayom” – and none of them gave the credit which media outlets are supposed to give.
    Worthy of a positive mention is Avri Gilad who named the true origin of the story both in his morning show in Channel 2 and in his radio show in the Army radio.
    We understand there is great deal of embarrassment among the media, which had quoted a dubious and irresponsible blogger, but that shouldn’t, in our opinion, cause them to refrain from correcting their articles, now, when they know the truth. In fact the seriousness of a news publication can be measured in its willingness to admit its mistakes and to correct them.
    We hope that media outlets, mentioned here, all of them among the most respected in Israel, will know to set things right, and clarify that the original publication was written by a veteran and well known member of the fresh.co.il community, and was published on his behalf by the Moderator of the Army and Security Forum, Sirpad. That is how a responsible media should act – and this how any news organization would expect other to treat him or its reporters were things different.

    Sincerely,
    Fresh.co.il team

       4 likes