Quite a remarkable attack on Israel by Paddy Ashdown on the BBC this morning. It all feeds into the BBC meme that Israel has the theoretical right to defend itself but in practise this must not happen. Ashdown was allowed to throw out the faux comparison to what has happened in Northern Ireland – so ignoring the fact that the moment Palestinians got their Judenfrei Gaza they instantly turned it into a terror base. The BBC interviewer also missed the chance to ask Ashdown what is it about the LibDems that so appeals to Israeli haters such as wannabe suicide bomber Jenny Tonge and aspirant Hamas rocketeer David Ward. Still, it’s only Jews they would seek to harm so what’s the big deal….
NO PUTDOWN FOR ASHDOWN
Bookmark the permalink.
‘missed the chance to ask Ashdown what is it about the LibDems that so appeals to Israeli haters’
___
It’s what the BBC does not ask that is so telling.
But almost impossible to analyse, and they know it.
And even if more data was sought, there’s always an FOI exemption ready to stop that.
Last night twitter descended into a morass as a mass assault was instigated by every selective pea-brain out there.
Jo Abbess (of ‘getting the BBC to change editorial to suit her world view’ fame) must have RT’d every context-free sound bite out there, and the minute anyone tried to actually add some context the interference brigade appears from all quarters not to answer tangible points but smear and scream.
Interestingly, despite all this, and the sheer volume of propaganda from the BBC, the MSM and even our own government’s bandwagoneering statesweasels, plus of course thugs with genocidal, illegal hate placards ‘protesting’ everywhere protected by a ‘best not stir things up’ police or court system, I struggle to find many actual Arab or Islamic states weighing in on the side of Hamas or even the Gazans.
In fact there appears a fair bit of overt criticism or, at best, mute avoidance.
Given another Good Lord weighing in where Prescott clearly felt his heft could be supported (sadly for him even Mirror readers not so keen), given his party’s woeful record with any number of ‘isms around this, he might have been better advised to follow the Arab world and keep it zipped.
What FOI question would you ask?
And shouldn’t you take this up with those that drew up the legislation? or is your understanding of FOI simply that you aks a question and get an answer?
‘is your understanding of FOI simply that you aks a question and get an answer?’
Versus what instead?
Ask a question and get told that for the ‘purposes of’ they can pull the plug on the spot as the BBC only asks questions and demands answers where no one else can of them?
As currently happens, a lot.
People have tried to find out what processes guide BBC editorial decisions based on actual data, and have been blown off.
The legislation is one thing; the BBC’s interpretation and misuse of it another, and the indulgence of the authorities allowing them to do it another still.
They are all public sector. ‘Taking it up’ with them is near guaranteed an exercise in nailing jelly to the wall.
But they, and others, so seem to get disconcerted when what happens is shared beyond their little secret places publicly.
So thanks for the opportunity to make that point again.
Versus what? Well why don’t you read the legislation and find out?
And when the Information Commissioner agrees with the BBC? Your answer is that they’re all in it together. They’re all wrong, and you’re right. Quelle surprise.
Trolls may be starved or shot, but never fed.
An FOI question might be: ‘Who attended that climate change meeting you don’t seem to want anyone to know about?’
The response, as they say, is history.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/11/10/the-secret-28-who-made-bbc-green-will-not-be-named/
According to Lord Ashdown the Israelis have killed thousands of Palestinians. Not ‘over a thousand’ but ‘thousands’.
If so, doubtless corrected by the market rate talents interviewing him, backed by their legions of support staff?
If Hamas can only inflate the real figure up to 1000 or so I suspect the real number is a lot less. And they’re counting those killed their own munitions too of course. If only we had an impartial broadcaster who could determine the true figures?
Oh, you mean like the UN? Which I suppose you’ll now say is a hotbed of Hamas supporters?
Even the Palestinians are tired of Hamas. They aren’t the issue here. What IS the issue is that instead of targetting people who are fair game, Israel is going for the unarmed children and civilians. Just look up Ayelet Shakur’s ‘little snakes’ comments.
Unless of course, all those countless images of infants weeping between dead parents’ graves and bleeding to death were orchestrated by Hamas. How out of touch with reality can you get?
Hamas directs journalists to combine casualty figures and the BBC complies. Hamas fighters – dead or alive – are invisible. Clearly the defenceless, unarmed civilians are responsible for the deaths of over 60 of Israel’s elite fighters and firing almost 3,000 rockets (literally thousands) because no Hamas people are around.
If Ashdown doesn’t realise this is a real war then the media, BBC especially, is to blame.
He says a thousand at the start, corrects himself with over a thousand and then at the end of the interview says ‘thousands in Gaza’. That could be taken to mean thousands in total rather than in Op Edge alone. Seems something of a quibble though, when the total is now 1,600.
I didn’t hear the start of the interview so I only heard the ‘ thousands’ bit. But I heard him make a contrast with ‘2 Israelis’ (the Thai doesn’t count it seems). So his exaggeration for effect is clear.
The figure of 1600 is supplied by Hamas and treated as gospel by the BBC and leftards everywhere. They always add the rider ‘mostly civilians’. They omit the facts that they will have a large percentage of terrorists ( not militants, Ming, as you seem to need some help understanding the true picture here) being killed, and do not tell us how many “civilians” were killed by their own ineptness with their own weaponry when their rockets have failed to leave Gaza and killed the people they use as shields.
Why don’t you go to Gaza and do a count for us?
Apparently Hamas fighters have Hamas tattooed on their foreheads.
Idiot. Most of the dead terrorists are easily identified by info. on social media, including the death notices that Hamas itself publishes. All that needs to be done is to comb through the casualty lists and examine each individual case.
So far it looks as though well over half the CLAIMED death toll was identifiable terrorists. A disproportionate number of the rest were young males. Many died at premises of Hamas operatives – after warnings had been given to evacuate. Given the age profile of Gaza a surprisingly low number were infants.
It shouldn’t have been ANY infants, if Israel are half as concerned about precision as they claim to be. And where would they evacuate to, pray tell? With the 15 mins warning time allocated? When they struggle to leave the Strip?
The safest place to evacuate to would be any open space, which Hamas terrorists will absolutely NOT be occupying at any time soon.
Pray tell how Israeli forces are supposed to miss infants deliberately placed in places designed to draw fire from the Israelis because they are the locations used to fire at the Israelis ?
So Palestinians are so inhuman they lack the instinctive human drive to protect their young? And Hamas fired rockets from that beach where the four children were beheaded?
Yes, while the rockets are falling, let’s stand out in the open. We’re sure not to be hit then. Great plan.
That’s the whole point. Hamas choose to use human shields, and then wail and gnash teeth (yeah, right !) when anyone fires back at them. The whole point is that Hamas is firing from within, or right next to, schools, hospitals, mosques, any public building where they can force innocents into, because that furthers their aims. They do not ask civilian populations to clear out of any area where they might fight from without a child in front of them….oh no…. they actually force civilians to stay right in the firing line.
Hamas glories in the death of their children, their women, and their old. It’s what gets them attention from the rest of the world, and ‘justifies’ their existence.
Your justification for them hiding behind children coincides precisely with Hamas’ view that human shields are the best weapon they can find. Cowards.
Where are your FACTS? Not a single Gazan has said they have been forced to remain by Hamas. It’s a lie perpetrated by the Israeli government.
My proof, which I actually have:
http://jfjfp.com/?p=63044
http://jfjfp.com/?p=63333
Interesting that while he stated that Iron Dome was sufficient and the Israelis should just have put up with it he omitted to address the other reason for the incursion – the tunnels. So his military expertise allowed them to have the unopposed facilities to one day storm through and attack with suicide bombers and fanatics without doing anything about it. No wonder he never made past Captain
‘stated that Iron Dome was sufficient’
Further to the comments regarding the Snow and Bowen family summer outing venues, maybe the various Ashdown broods could be tempted East to savour just how ‘sufficient it feels after a few days’ worth, vs. decades?
Rather glad he was not tasked with defending near me when in service.
I might have felt less than reassured.
I didn’t hear what was ‘remarkable’ about it or that it was even an attack, but there you go.
Nor did he say that ‘Israel has the theoretical right to defend itself but in practise this must not happen’. Where did he say that!?
What was ‘faux’ about the comparison to Northern Ireland? given that he was talking about talking to enemies in order to begin a peace process? There doesnt seem much point in having peace talks between Israel and ……Israel?
Pressed Ming’s report comment by accident. Sorry.
Regarding a truce or meaningful peace-talks between Arabs and Israelis, this will never happen. Arab pride prevents it.
And Israeli pride doesn’t?
I didn’t hear what was ‘remarkable’ about it or that it was even an attack, but there you go.
Bowen ‘if a rocket falls in Israel and I didn’t see it, did it really happen?’ Rules apply?
‘What was ‘faux’ about the comparison to Northern Ireland? given that he was talking about talking to enemies in order to begin a peace process? There doesnt seem much point in having peace talks between Israel and ……Israel?’
Probably the endless peace talks in the past that have come to nothing because, when all is said and done, the ‘Palestinians’ and a large chunk of the Arab world in general are committed to wiping Israel off the face of the earth. Until that issue is addressed (see Hamas charter), any talks are pointless.
Historical context does help, especially when you’re interviewing someone like Ashdown so, if you don’t understand it or choose not to, the questions that a trusting public deserve to hear asked will never pass the lips of a BBC interviewer. It’s called bias.
The Republic of Ireland had a claim on NI in their consitution too.
Agree though that no BBC interview can ever include the questions that you personally wish to ask.
Whenever were the R of I represented by IRA/Sinn Fein?
Agree that the BBC only ever include questions that they personally wish to ask, and which reflect their blatant left/liberal bias.
There’s little point having a ceasefire and peace talks when the ceasefire is broken within hours every single time. By Hamas, every single time.
Hamas didn’t kill Goldin. Or the three Israeli teens, whose parents after all chose to live in an illegal and consequently dangerous settlement.
But they don’t matter do they because they’re jews.
Of course they matter. But not more than Palestinians.
Nat, that is a disgusting thing to say. Hamas DID kill Goldin, and 2 other IDF men in that incident. And your casual remark seeking to in some way justify the murder of the 3 young Israelis is beneath contempt.
Paddy is their kind of guy.
Liberal.Lordy and a philanderer…John Prescott with a military bearing in reality.
That he`s harmless, no threat to |Blair or the current lefties only endears him more to the BBC….he`ll be regarded as “balance” for the real left like Galloway or Tonge.
Ashdown, Heseltine, Prescott-a glorious crop of statesmen eh?
You have to go back to Joe Grimmond to find a decent Liberal. Since it’s all Israel/Jew hatred with them. Ward & Tonge……..you couldn’t make it up. Thorpe Ha ha. Pantsdown adulterer, Fatty Smith…perv’ liar corrupt, Handycock….perv, ‘ Clegg liar (student grants) pussy whipped. etc etc.
Listening to “Any Answers” earlier, the first caller described himself as a Jew who opposed Israeli action in Gaza – just a member of the public. However to me he seemed a bit too knowledgable, and lo and behold, when I googled his name (Glyn Secker), it turns out he is a member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians AND he skippered one of the boats (Irene) trying to break the Gaza sea blockade a couple of years ago. Amazing what one can find out on the internet about “members of the public”.
Milliband’s mother is in that gang. These are the people who were kapo’s in the death camps.
Congratulations on your research. This, broadcasting ‘members of the public’ without telling us their true affiliation, is one of the most insidious forms of BBC bias and this blog performs a valuable service in exposing examples. We should find a way of cataloguing and archiving them.
What’s the betting that there aren’t many examples of ‘members of the public’ who turn out to be right-wing or pro-Israel etc?
Perhaps ‘Ming’ could comment – on this and on the legal executive for Friends of the Earth who was rumbled by the Cuadrilla guy on a phone-in last week but not by the BBC anchorwoman, even though she admitted his specific connection was on the screen in front of her.
As ever, it’s what the BBC don’t tell you or the questions they don’t ask (particularly when ‘the narrative’ is being poured forth by one of their proxies) which defines their bias.
Devious bastards.
He should be given a medal.
There is a sort of balance. Reports are sent from both sides of the divide.
But on one we see images of a vast array of sophisticated weaponry and hear the reasoned (clinical) tones of Israeli officialdom.
On the other we are assaulted with upset, maimed or dead moppets.
There is the show of balance but the effect on the uninformed viewer is obvious:repugnance at Israeli barbarism.
So the exact opposite of the truth is conveyed.
There’s a great post on that called: Not Even Close at:
http://john-moloney.blogspot.com/2014/08/not-even-close.html
Where are the Hamas fighters – dead or alive?
In a 5* hotel in Qatar or cowering underground.
Superb article.
‘So Hamas bears almost the entire moral responsibility for the suffering of the people of Gaza. Much of the rest is borne not by Israel but by western media. When the BBC and CNN et al hammer home day after day their emotive cartoon message that Israel is using its vast military superiority to massacre children they achieve three things.
First, they convince the otherwise uninformed that Israel is in the wrong and pursuing an evil agenda.
Second, they ensure that Hamas will continue to use Palestinians as human shields because they are never held to account in western media for this disgusting and evil policy.
Third, that Hamas or any other Palestinian government will never be forced to accept reality and learn to live with its Jewish neighbour as long as western propaganda results in moral and material support for their cause.’
‘Nuff said.
it does not matter whether it is paddy ashdown and his liberal chums,jeremy bowen,or paul mason ex bbc who spends most of his time camped outside hospitals in the gaza strip interviewing hamas terrorists,the lot of them have took a stance on this conflict in israel and that is israel are the baddies and hamas and there al qaada mates are victims of this great injustice.that is the narrative that is been pushed everynight from the bbc to channel 4 and it gets quiet sickening to watch.
Ashdown likes to refer to his military past as though that gives him some sort of credibility in his naive pronouncements. This philandering dickhead is not the sort of soldier I’d want watching my back in a combat zone. He’d be more likely to offer a bunch of flowers to an enemy combatant than a bullet.
BBC Radio 4 this morning.
One of the panel commented on a British sportsman wearing a ‘support Gaza’ wristband and said that at least he didn’t have a ‘support Israel’ wristband. All the panel fully agreed.
Bias?
Definitely bias ! Where are the trustees, or more importantly, where is our government ?
And I have to pay these twats £145.50 this month.
Last I checked, Gazan civilians were the ones dying in droves. Do tell me if that changes.
As ugly and as awful as the death toll in Gaza is
the last I checked many more people have died these past few weeks in:
Syria,Iraq,Yemen,Pakistan and in Afghanistan yet for some strange reason people are taking to the streets in protest. I mean have you seen the video that ISIS brought out to celebrate Eid exactly a week ago, they took great pleasure in showing the world how they murdered so many young men in cold blood. Yes watch as people are herded on mass to be murdered by the bullet.
The question I have to ask is
Where are the protests and where is the condemnation , silly me there isn’t.
ISIS is a terrible organisation, true. But they don’t make a point of killing children.
I’d like the link to their video and some actual, fact-based numbers please. Ideally not ones from the Times of Israel.
Try the old spoof letter for the LARK initiative found over here;
http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/lark.asp
Ashdown lied and fucked another woman behind his wife of 30 years’ back. He did this while in a position of trust and therefore is a piece of leftist shit whose opinion and word is absolutely worthless.