ISRAEL DISPUTES GAZA DEATH RATES



SCARY

 

Total dead: 1,166 (1,434)
Fighters: 710-870 (235)
Non-combatants: 295-460 (960)
Women: 49 (121)
Children under 16: 89 (288)

 

“SUE” COMPARES SCARE QUOTES “RATES”

I divided this “article” about discrepancies in “casualty” figures into two.

A = Putting Israel’s case.

B = Putting Palestinians’ case.

Although there were about 55 more words reporting Israel’s case, the article still seemed biased against it.
How, I thought, could this be? Having separated them, (by “scientifically scrupulous” method of scrutiny by “agenda-driven bigot” ) I noticed that A was sprinkled generously with scare quotes while B had only one set which related to directly reported speech.
I counted twelve sets of inverted commas altogether, a ratio of 11-1. 

My survey.
Total words in article 630Representing Isr (Pali) = 304(249)

 
Total sets quotation marks = 12

Isr /Pali quote marks = 11 (1)

 
Direct speech = 0 (1)

 
Reported / Indirect speech = 4 (0)*

Gratuitous scare quotes = 7 (0)**



*”It is generally considered incorrect to use quotation marks for paraphrased speech where they may give the impression that the paraphrasing represents the actual words used.”

**”to indicate or call attention to ironic or apologetic words.

Lobby in Hotel

200 people attended a glittering celebration at the Kensington Royal Garden Hotel the other day. Nearly forty of them were journalists, including senior journalists from the BBC. The function was laid on by Arab Media Watch, or the pro Palestinian lobby, as a fundraiser and a gesture of appreciation for sympathetic coverage of Gaza. This is a mirror image of the Jewish lobby, but, unlike that sinister satanic cabal, this one is obviously considered respectable and above board by the BBC. So for that reason I suggest we take some of the excellent advice they offer on their website since it has clearly been so effective. There is a handy list of contacts, hints on letter writing, tips on how to pressure the media to present your case, and a useful guide to ‘where journalism often goes wrong when dealing with violence’, entitled “Misrepresenting Violence.” That one should be forwarded to Jeremy Bowen immediately. It was published in 2002 but he might not have seen it.
There is also a page explaining some factual errors, for example the myth that Hamas is out to destroy Israel. They supply proof of this on two counts.

A) How could they do it with such inferior weaponry?
B) They have offered a ten-year hudna. What more could they do?

Please note amended figures. Not all 36 were from the BBC! Apologies. Everything else still stands, bilge or not.

 

General BBC-related comment thread.

Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely

Dan the Man


Hands up everyone who wants a thread just about Daniel Hannan.
Haven’t we exhausted the subject yet? By the time it gets going the BBC will have reported it. Or some of it.
Surely the BBC will be forced to mention it in a minute, even if only because of the ‘viral’ aspect. Bias by omission will then have to be downgraded to bias by sluggishness, then bias by selective editing, bias by dismissive editorials, then just bias; then it will be buried. Bias by premature burial.
Oh well. I suppose 600.000 youtube hits does deserve this thread.

Edit Them Pretty

Been watching the Apprentice? I have. Of course it’s all in the editing. A bunch of people are given an impossible task. To do something none of them knows the first thing about in a ridiculously short time, and then being forced to go head to head in the boardroom where the object is to make the other person take the blame for your own incompetence.

We all know from the start that the winner will be the best looking, and the first ones to go will be the unprepossessing ones, and the annoying ones with grating laughs and raucous voices will be kept on for entertainment purposes till they get too gross. The one with a misplaced faith in her own infallibility and a glum expression got fired first.

There’s a parallel with our leaders in there somewhere. I caught Harriet Harpy on the radio rubbishing some proposed Tory policy, presumably the one about inheritance tax. “It’s a tax for millionaires!” she was shrieking. Oh those wicked millionaires, she had to say, because she was supposed to be in the labour party. How ironic that sounded when all her labour colleagues are doing their best to rake in as much as they can via allowances for multiple unnecessary extra homes and all.

Then there’s our new hero Daniel Hannan. What a speech, and without a single teleprompter. What a shame the BBC omitted to show it. It’s the editing you see. Policy. Not newsworthy. Never mind, we all saw it on the internet. Despite his eloquence, his clear fluent delivery, his open features and ringing tones, there still lurks the matter of his fondness for The One. Can such steely powers of judgment have deserted him altogether when apllied to the telegenic one? Oh well we can’t all be perfect.


The most unnerving thing in that clip was the shot of Gordon’s terrible grin. What a haunting image. “Gordon, what was you doin’? You put yourself up for project manager, you’re a total disgrace. You’re fired.”

Imagine the lot of them in the boardroom, all trying to make the other person take the blame for their incompetence because they’ve failed the impossible task they were given that none of them knew the first thing about, with the voters baying for blood and Sir Alan waiting to point.

General BBC-related comment thread.

Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely

Feeding the Wolves

In my Hague Left Hanging post below I alluded to the Haaretz report consisting, it turns out, mainly of hearsay about unethical behaviour by IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza.
Eagerly awaited fodder for the pack of wolves, hungry for just such tales of war crimes perpetrated by the IDF.

Melanie P addressed the evidence, dismantling it point by point, but it had already been swallowed by the MSM, the hungriest of which is the BBC’s siamese twin, the Guardian.

Not content with editorials and numerous articles, the most poisonous of which is by ‘Hamas mouthpiece’ Seamas Milne, the Guardian has been calling for support for its “work” by sending out an appeal to blog and website owners. It came from the delightfully named Mustafa Khalili who sent one by mistake to a pro Israel blog.

“The Guardian has regrettably thrown all professional journalistic ethics and pretensions to balance and objectivity to the four winds, and has gleefully annexed itself to the cause of Hamas,” said Ami Isseroff, chief editor of ZioNation. (Jpost quoting web site ZioNation)

The BBC has got in on the act of course. In a dumbed down article, they’ve got hold of a report, this time by UN investigators, who have come up with yet more ammo about unethical behaviour by Israeli soldiers. It doesn’t tell us much, but who cares, as long as it’s got this “The UN team responsible for protection of children in war zones says it found “hundreds” of similar violations.”
This is primarily concerned with the Guardian and to a lesser extent the BBC, but when Andrew Marr, Paxman and Esler get properly stuck in no doubt there’s much more in store.

PotKettleBiased

That terrible scourge of Israel, human rights spokesperson Richard Falk, has decided that Israel’s war crimes are “not a question of whether Israel used disproportionate force in Gaza, but rather whether Israel acted lawfully in entering Gaza at all.” (The next stage is obviously declaring that the existence of Israel is itself a war crime.)

Today reported this, and ended by stating that by condemning Israel for human rights violations so frequently and so much more harshly than other countries who were equally, if not more, guilty of human rights violations, human rights commissioners or whatever they’re called are beginning to look less than even-handed.

Was the speaker Imogen Foulkes? I don’t know because Today iplayer isn’t working.

Hague Left Hanging

I considered posting about Andrew Marr’s interview with William Hague yesterday, where in the final stages he suddenly threw in a question about the “pretty appalling-looking” reports by the IDF.

My impression was that Hague was subtly supportive of Israel, but was almost bullied into reiterating the word ‘appalling,’ knowing it was his only hope of retaining credibility with the audience.

He was supportive of Israel merely by making two points that went against the grain. a) We don’t know the truth, and, b) that Israel has a mechanism for investigating such things, and for bringing to book those found guilty.
Even mentioning these points at all was daringly radical in the circumstances; because, a) such remarks are the very things that Israel’s enemies always scoff at, and b) the subject was slipped in abruptly at the end and left hanging. There wasn’t time to elaborate, and that was what made his points seem unconvincing and far-fetched.

I saw it as bullying and covert bias. I didn’t post yesterday because the thought of the chanting chorus made me weary.

But today Melanie P has gone much further and is less generous with Hague. Her examination of the issues is well worth looking at, as usual.

On Oath?

One of the biggest obstacles to impartial reporting is the language barrier. At the mercy of Palestinian stringers and translators, how can the audience be sure that what they are being told is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Tom Gross has something interesting to say about Jeremy Bowen and his former colleague Chris Gunness. Do read it all.