From Our Own Correspondent rolls on in its own inimical style.
FOOC had a little report on the Holocaust and education in Israel…it started off as if it was just a human interest story bringing us the lives of Israelis and the meaning perhaps of the Holocaust and how it still touches their lives….much as the BBC brings us the heartwarming or heartstring plucking tales from Palestinians or asylum seekers.
You soon realised that was not to be here…as soon as the BBC stated that there was a ‘row’ over the Holocaust education you knew what had attracted the BBC’s attention to this story.
The BBC gleefully tells us that Holocaust education in Israel is traumatising children.
Those Jews eh!
But hold the frontpage…..there is actually, for once, a good news story on the BBC about Israel….
Start-up nation
Rory Cellan-Jones on Israel’s new wave of tech innovators
I’m in Israel for four days, visiting what’s been called the “start-up nation” to film a piece which will be shown on BBC World in mid February. But along the way I’m going to give some random first impressions of what I’ve seen on my travels.
Will be interesting to see the overall tone of the finished programme.
And finally from FOOC we have Chris Bockman in Toulouse who discovers that the municipal bathhouse has become a virtual community centre.
Bockman manages to slip in a ‘fact’ that it is now the ‘working poor’ who use the public showers now as they are too poor to own a home.
I’m sure France is awash with ‘working poor’ living in their cars as he suggests…but then that would be the result of Hollande’s economic policies….as recommended by our very own Ed Miliband.
No coincidence this littlesnippet reminding us of the plight of the poverty stricken working poor came in the week that Jonathan Freedland was banging away about it on his programme on Tuesday and then surprise surprise Miliband raises the subject in PMQs.
Nothing like keeping a narrative running however under the radar the ‘nudges’ might be.
I’m in Israel for four days, visiting what’s been called the “start-up nation”
Can anybody name me a current Islamic invention (No the Mecca alarm clock doesn’t count) which has helped man kind? Other than the current wave of suicide bomber who carry their charges up their arses I can’t think of one, oh hang on playing the victim game is a bloody good money maker. Israel on the other hand has invent lots, I only wish these so called Israel haters would stop using anything made in Israel only then would I respect them. But they don’t
Considering the muslims in the middle east have been sending oil and gas to us in the civilised west for maybe approaching 150years,they haven’t contributed anything other than the raw materials to what is a very sophisticated, intelligence intensive and very successful industry. God help them when we eventually stop needing to deal with them because hopefully, we won’t.
Alan, thanks for the link to FOOC. I listened to the segment on Israel and perhaps you can point me to the segment where the BBC “gleefully” reported that children were being traumatised?
Albaman .
Why do you still defend the BBC in the face of huge past and present biases and no doubt more intended for the future. I am not trying to be critical of you just genuinely curious how you can think it a fair and impartial broadcaster which represents the views of the British people
Ridiculous.
The FOOC piece on Israel was perfectly fine, and to spin it as being something else does this site little credit.
It was essentially reporting the argument that the Holocaust should be taught in a standardised manner in Israeli schools, rather than leaving individual teachers to decide themselves as is the case at the moment, and that such teaching should be dealt with in an age appropriate manner. That’s all.
One line mentioned a man who still had nightmares thirty years after his teacher showed him photographs from the camps. There was also talk of the traumatic nature of the subject. How is that anything but the truth? Of course it is traumatic.
The issue was dealt with with great compassion and even-handedness.
FOOC remains the jewel in Radio 4s crown. If only Today was regularly as interesting, balanced and thoughtful.
FOOC…’jewel in BBC’s crown’?
WTF?
Oh look It’s Lazarus Mk 2
A Holocaust book for young children:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25843788
It seems its Haaretz which ‘gleefully tells us that Holocaust education in Israel is traumatising children’.
Those Jews about other Jews eh?
At least the BBC isn’t giving a platform to someone denying the Holocaust. More proof the BBC is controlled by Zionists, according to some. Time for “complaints from both sides”.
Ah …like these Jews on Jews:
http://hurryupharry.org/2014/01/29/neturei-karta-want-you-to-know-that-they-were-demonstrating-for-jobbik/
Uh-oh. I can’t tell from Cellan-Jones’ article, but he surely can’t do a feature on Israel’s contributions to technology without mentioning the boycott movement. The BBC’s impartiality rules wouldn’t allow the omission. I’m happy to be proven wrong, of course.
The problem is that just the act of broadcasting such a piece will elicit complaints that the BBC is a Zionist shill. This will then be more ammo for the BBC’s “We get it about right because we get complaints from both sides” defense, providing cover for more demonization of Israel.
The other, more enjoyable problem is that this will really annoy numerous BBC staff, like Roland Hughes.
(Tweet deleted after he got caught. Unfortunately for him, the BBC’s Social Media courses never seem to impart the vital information that they can delete all they want but the embed code lives forever.)
I’d have used Paul Mason as the example, but he’s out of there now.
‘…surely can’t do a feature on … without mentioning…’
See what you did there.
This is the BBC in charge of the edit.
Then, of course, there is what is ‘mentioned’, but perhaps should not be, at least in guise of informed ‘reporting’:
http://bbcwatch.org/2014/01/30/revealed-bbcs-kevin-connolly-knows-how-to-use-wikipedia/
‘ ”BBC News aspires to remain the standard-setter for international journalism“, its funding public is reassured by the BBC Trust. One of course rather doubts that those obliged to pay £145.50 a year to fund the BBC would expect the use of dubious, unverified information sourced from Wikipedia to be part of that “standard”.’
Indeed. Aspiration without delivery in service industries usually has a short lifespan, except for those who are ‘unique’.
‘The problem is that just the act of broadcasting such a piece will elicit complaints that the BBC is a Zionist shill. This will then be more ammo for the BBC’s “We get it about right because we get complaints from both sides” defense, providing cover for more demonization of Israel.’
a) You’ve simply made that up.
b) By this logic, even when a report isn’t biased, its still biased.