Author Archives: Sue

So it Goes Again

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“The BBC is currently much more interested in the untimely granting of planning permission for a few houses for Jews. Joe Biden’s visit was just in time for that, but, dammit, just too late for the ceremonial dedication of a public square to Dalal Mughrabi.”

Forgive me for re-posting a snippet of my own copy. I’ve been away from a computer, and now I see that Robin Shepherd has written another cracking article about the BBC’s treatment of these events and the BBC’s attitude to Israel in general.


“What in fact is the BBC line against Israel, as evidenced by the thrust of its writing and reporting?”

He cites five examples of certain stories the BBC has chosen to ignore or downplay. Had the BBC given them the prominence they actually merit, a different light would have been cast on the situation. One that would render the BBC’s entire narrative on Israel incoherent.

“That is why the Dalal Mughrabi story was ignored. That is why the BBC continues to censor all reference to Hamas’s anti-Semitism from their profile of the group on their website. That is why terrorists are referred to as “militants”. And what applies to the BBC applies in Europe more broadly.

By leaving the general population in a state of near total unawareness about the realities that Israel confronts in its dealings with the Palestinians, even neutral and unbiased observers are bound to come away with the impression that Israel is the guilty party in this conflict.

This is real censorship. And it works.”

Writers that understand the case for Israel and have a grasp of the I/P conflict invariably mention the BBC’ s slanted coverage. The biased reporting that has gone on for the last forty years has a helluva lot to answer for.
Robin Shepherd is one of the more eloquent supporters of Israel, and he is by no means alone in regarding the BBC’s deficiencies over this matter with deep despair.

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Bob’s Yer Uncle

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Here we are, frantically battling against the bias at the BBC. Year in, year out, we stab away at our keyboards, foam-flecked spittle flying, blood pressure on the point of spontaneous combustion.
Auntie, meanwhile, gaily carries on, undeterred, oblivious and undaunted.

Then, along comes Bob. Hell hath no fury like a live-aid organiser scorned. The BBC sits up and openth one eye.
So. Should we recruit a celeb?.

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So it Goes.

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Two untypical BBC items to report.

The Culture Show BBC2 featured the Jewish Museum, soon to reopen after a £10 m refurbishment. Sharfraz Mazoor chatted to some well-known Jewish TV faces, and took us through various bits of British Jewish history. Which was nice.

Item two, Radicalization in Prison
BBC News 24 has been featuring Daniel Sandford’s report about this topic as ‘news.’ It even appeared slightly critical, and perhaps a tiny bit judgmental.
Which is – not nice, but comparatively frank for the Beeb.
Of course it’s not new, surely it’s been common knowledge for ages; and it goes without saying that they’re referring to ‘a distorted version of Islam,’ not the real version, which is peaceful.
There’s an upcoming documentary on R5 Sunday by Donal MacIntyre.

Back to abnormal with something more typical.

Melanie Phillips reveals how the PA, led by so-called moderate Mahmoud Abbas, really feels about ‘the liberation of their own land.’ They still regard a mass murdering suicide bomber as a heroine. This might be hard to reconcile with their so-called desire for peace. But not to worry. Jeremy Bowen had this sorted in 2003:

“these people are seen by Palestinians as heroes of their would-be independence movement, and it’s important for them to be mentioned [by Yasser Arafat] and it fulfils their ritualistic sloganising function”. [bless]
“Let’s not forget that before Israeli independence Messrs Shamir and Begin were regarded by the British as terrorists. They went on – in the case of Begin – to win the Nobel Prize for Peace.”

The BBC is currently much more interested in the untimely granting of planning permission for a few houses for Jews. Joe Biden’s visit was just in time for that, but, dammit, just too late for the ceremonial dedication of a public square to Dalal Mughrabi. Which was a shame.

It seems that many posters and bloggers assume that it goes without saying that the BBC is terminally biased against Israel and in favour of Muslims. So much so that many of them do literally allow it to go without saying, unless something exceptional comes up and prompts them to mention it in passing. If people are so resigned to the BBC’s bias that they just sigh and roll their eyes at it, it makes B-BBC, including myself, look a bit futile and old hat. Which is annoying.

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Who’s Complaining?

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Some months ago, we commented on an item on The London Breakfast Show, hosted by Wossy’s brother Paul and an actress called JoAnne Good.
They were interviewing Michael White, political editor of the Guardian.

In synch with both the rag he represents and its conjoined twin the BBC, this man bears considerable hostility to Israel. Both news organs are renowned for their anti-Zionist position, but the BBC alone is constrained by an inconvenient obligation to appear impartial.

These incompatible phenomena (hatred of Israel and the obligation to appear impartial) might condemn the BBC to a lifetime struggle, viz. maintaining an increasingly fragile charade that compels them to wriggle and contort in a doomed attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable.

But by designating Israel automatically guilty (on all counts, at all times,) they shift the entire middle ground, readjusting it till it’s accepted that all and sundry are steadfastly opposed to Israel. This allows partiality to masquerade as impartiality, solves the problem of irreconcilable anomalies and upholds the BBC Charter, all in one fell swoop.

Because of the BBC’s own shortcomings, namely their lack of rigor in tackling the complexities of the Israel Palestine conflict, BBC reporters probably rely on romantic Lawrence of Arabia type fantasies or instinctive suspicion of Jews to influence the decision over which side to regard as the goodie, and which the baddie.
Then all they have to do is swallow and regurgitate the Palestinian narrative, lock stock and fiction.

Michael White’s words on December 14th 2009 obviously met with the approval of the interviewing duo, because their chorus of mmmms in agreement floated audibly across the airwaves.

“In Israel they murder each other a great deal. The Israeli Defense Forces murder people because they don’t like their political style and what they’ve got to say and it only means that people more extreme come in and take their place.”

Some listeners found this highly offensive, and were persistent enough to engage with the complaints procedure, whereupon an unfortunate BBC employee named Andrew Bell was tasked to respond. It appears he set about adapting the regulation one-size-fits-all reply to suit the occasion. He conceded that the terminology was “not as exact as it might be,” but added that since Michael White’s meaning was clear to Andrew Bell, ( that Israel murders people willy-nilly if they “don’t like their political style,”) he decided that all awkward, contrary and pedantic Moaning Minnies could ‘away and bile their heeds’ to borrow a phrase from north of the border.

While the BBC Trust, or the BBC Itself are the sole adjudicators,
complaining about the BBC seems as useless, as Mitnaged on CiFWatch puts it, as shouting down a well.

However, this has just popped into my inbox. Honest Reporting has concluded that complaining to the BBC is still worth it!
“All complaints are logged, and there is no better way to make the BBC aware of your concerns.”

I often wonder if anyone from the BBC still glances at this website.

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Demon Eyes

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Friday’s Any Questions broadcast from the London Muslim Centre aka the East London Mosque was part of the BBC’s strategy of embracing Islam.

After the recent C4 Dispatches programme that showcased the unpleasant side of the Islamic Forum of Europe, appeasing Muslims might have seemed a good move by the BBC, what with their desire to promote social cohesion.

The fact that Ken Livingstone was one of the panellists and Mehdi Hasan was another, guaranteed that the programme would be on message.
Predictably, halfway through came the question ‘Does the press demonise Muslims?’
Mehdi Hasan’s outburst was as astonishing as it was hypocritical.

He said the MSM erroneously represent the outpourings of Anjem Choudary as though they were the views of all Muslims. They do this merely because they seek sensational stories. He insisted that the majority of Muslims, including the Islamic Forum of Europe, are moderate and peaceful. He said Andrew Gilligan was a disgrace.

He thought the press has created Islamophobia, which has turned people against Mosques being built in their area because they believe all Muslims are terrorists making bombs.

These ideas might have resonance from an Islamic perspective. But from a UK perspective things look different. Many people who don’t want Mosques do not have a phobia. Their objection to Mosques is likely because they associate them with non-assimilated communities whose cultural practises are at odds with the UK, quite a rational fear one might say. Many people who are perfectly sane don’t wish to be subjected to calls to prayer over loudspeakers several times a day – heaven knows some people find church bells intrusive – and many people, completely right in the head, just don’t want people walking round their neighbourhoods wearing shrouds. Certainly some ordinary English people still hang on to traditional English customs, like monogamous marriage, free speech, as well as new-fangled concepts such as equality for women and tolerance of homosexuality, agnosticism, sex drugs and rock’n’ roll; some of them like keeping dogs, listening to music and looking at cartoons of Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.

Back at the BBC noticing that radicalised Muslims predominantly perpetrate terrorism is considered Islamophobic, as is expressing concerns about such things as the increasing demands from Muslims that we conform to their idiosyncrasies.

All the panellists on Any Questions played it by those unspoken rules, tiptoeing round the subject dutifully, to boldly taboo where no man has tabooed before.

If anyone does want a prime example of demonisation by the press, the New Statesman is it. But Mehdi Hasan’s New Statesman target is Israel, so in that case demonisation is fine.

Any demonisation of Muslims by the media pales into insignificance beside the demonisation of Israel that has been the norm in the MSM for decades.
Even examining areas where Islamic ideology is incompatible with UK ideals is unacceptable in BBC world, whereas decades of the BBC’s treatment of Israel has resulted in hostile hordes, ready willing and able to express their passionately misinformed, phobic opinions in the press.

Exhibit ‘a,’ is the Guardian, closely followed by the Financial Times.

Future generations are affected too. Postcards that were sent to the Israeli Embassy by Spanish children declare: “Jews kill for money,” “Leave the country to the Palestinians” and “Go somewhere where they will accept you.”

They probably didn’t get this directly from the BBC, but it’s indicative of the European malaise that the BBC at once reflects and creates.

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Shhhh

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I’ve been busy recently, but yesterday I started to write this:

*****

What with the election, the fuss about Lord Ashcroft, and the BBC falling apart, you’d think they would tell us about this.
The infiltration of the IFE into the British political system – I hear it’s not just Labour, — that’s news, isn’t it?
I mean it’s as significant and deeply troubling, if not more so, than this, wouldn’t you say?

*****

I didn’t post it then but having read this, I thought I’d better have another go.

Also, I was waiting for something to appear on the BBC, even a review of C4 Despatches, or some oblique mention, but so far nothing comes up when I search the BBC website. Please tell me if I’m wrong.

Even if I’m only a bit right, I am surprised and disappointed that the BBC has made little or nothing of this issue.
It may be that Andrew Gilligan is not the BBC’s favourite person, who knows, but the problem he lays before us is not something to be brushed under the carpet by our state broadcaster.
The BBC is in trouble at the moment I know, and its future is in flux.
But if, as they pledge, the quality of journalism is to be upgraded, how can they ignore something so central to the democratic political system we’re supposed to be so proud of?
Can things be so bad that they are afraid to tackle the subject?

In sharp contrast, they have chosen to promote, quite heavily, a long-awaited declaration by a Muslim leader that violence and terrorism are not quite the ticket. The obvious response would be ‘too little too late.’ It is a start, but the orchestrated political infiltration into the UK major political parties by an Islamist outfit is more pressing; a worrying trend that is beginning to look like another nail in Britain’s coffin.

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The Trials of The Diaspora and Other Stories

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When Melanie Phillips went to Australia she thought she had died and gone to heaven. She discovered that down under, unlike here in Blighty, supporting Israel does not have to be done in private, by consenting adults.

For your information, Melanie Phillips is “known to be an extremist Zionist insane warmongering Islamophobe” who must be treated with circumspection and labelled “Mad Mel” by all liberal-leaning followers of the BBC. She does appear on the BBC from time to time, but as her views are deemed insane the listeners and viewers are allowed to snigger, knowingly.

Start The Week.
Good grief. Anthony Julius is on!
There’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that Andrew Marr was unsettled by Anthony Julius’s book, and the bad news is that Marr and guests still seemed to think anti-Semitism (in the UK) is understandable because of the actions of Israel.
Or do I mean anti-Zionism.
“We could go on talking about this for ages” said Marr. But we won’t. There was an elephant in the studio somewhere, too.

It might be time to get my coat.

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Hero or Villain

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If anybody had any doubts about the BBC’s bias take a look at the way they spin this fascinating story.
A courageous man has not only risked the penalty for apostasy, but also converted to Christianity and denounced his father’s organisation, Hamas.
“But now we learn that his courage and his principles extended far further than this. As Ha’aretz reports, for ten years Yousef worked for the Israeli security service Shin Bet for whom the intelligence he provided saved countless lives from human bomb attacks:”

The BBC sees it differently.
Written primarily from the Palestinian perspective, Mosab Hassan Yousef is portrayed as a traitor and a spy. With highlighted quote ‘Slander and Lies’ the BBC unstintingly promotes the way Hamas sees things.

“Earlier, senior Hamas leader Ismail Radwan condemned Haaretz’s report as “baseless slander” aimed at the elder Yousef.

“The Palestinian people have great confidence in Hamas and its struggle and they will not be fooled by this slander and these lies of the Israeli occupation,” he told AFP news agency.”

The contents of the book Mr. Yousef is about to publish will confirm what we already know about Hamas. By ‘we’ I mean everyone apart from those employed by the BBC.

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