We’ve had a few looks at the likes of Jon Donnison who have been disseminating endless pictures of dead and injured children from Gaza and using them to attack Israel but Dan Hodges in the Telegraph neatly encapsulates all that needs to be said about the use of casualties as propaganda….
‘Atrocity porn’, and the online campaigners who use dead children to push political points
If you want to persuade me of your cause, persuade me. But don’t try to shame me, or shock me, or bully me onto your side.
If you do try to persuade me, do it with your arguments. Don’t do it with the broken, lifeless body of someone else’s child.
And most importantly, make your arguments with your words. Because if you can’t find sufficient words to convey at least part of the horror of what’s happening in Gaza and Iraq and the rest of our benighted, crumbling, morally bankrupt world, then it isn’t me that needs to take a look at themselves, it’s you.
Such images have existed since the dawn of time, as the human race has been responsible for terrible acts from the off. From paintings through posters to black & white photography to Photoshop and Pallywood, the full horror of the end product of conflict is there, and if not easily doctored.
There was, once, some bars, based on societal standards, public sensibilities & professional limits, but the internet has obliterated the checks and balances long ago. And so, to compete, the MSM simply has to join in.
But crucially, what has been lost is dedication to truth, and balance.
Rarely do these images get vetted beyond accepting the word of the PR source providing them, with all the consequent trust erosion from such complicity.
And then, on top, there is the editorial vetting. What goes in? What stays out? How many of one? How few of another?
In the world of ‘Two Wrongs’ the world’s least trustworthy news monopoly has a dire record, and one getting worse.
Word or image, the BBC filter is pervasive, and dire.
The likes of Jon Donnison have been at the forefront of putting forward imagery and passing on claim they had no business doing, yet their ideology trumps any professional integrity.
Equally, when there is material that does not suit their narrow narratives, all of a sudden watertight oversight kicks in, disclaimers abound, or sensibilities come into play.
Propaganda backed by censorship has poor historical precedent.
http://bbcwatch.org/2014/08/12/vital-statistics-stealth-changes-made-to-the-bbcs-gaza-casualty-figures-article/
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The factual questions posed are there to be answered. It will be interesting if anyone from the BBC tries. Guessing silence or, if pushed, predictable retreat behind ‘the purposes of’ will nip the need to account in the bud.
Given the topic of this thread, this comment seemed a pithy complement:
“Chris Gunness does seem to be fixated on the number of children killed to the point of mental illness.”
It’s possible that Mr. Hodges has identified other reasons?
Dead babies are Hamas’s only asset.
Even more on topic:
From the broadcasters who nurtured Saville and his passion for child porn, including the dead, comes a daily fix from broadcasters who nurture terrorists with a daily display of child pornography.
BBC’s Orla Guerin finds no evidence of Hamas using civilian areas for launching rockets.
One extraordinary feature of this war are the two opposing camps of journalists. Those who say they saw but were prevented from reporting together with those who say they were prevented from seeing compared with those who saw nothing in an environment apparently like Switzerland. The BBC is firmly in the second camp with no mavericks.
One would think there would be at least a little curiosity as to why there was so much material around, from IDF and other sources, including video evidence and first-hand reports and yet numerous BBC staff (how many?) saw nothing in over a month?
Hamas War Tactics: Attacks from Civilian Centers0
Orla Guerin’s hatred of Israel goes a long way back. Her hatred of Israel is vitriolic that bile pours out of her mouth the moment she thinks of Israel.
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