The BBC’s reaction to complaints seems to be to blame the person complaining rather than admit fault in its reporting….here’s Kevin Connolly’s weasel words (ht Craig at Is the BBC biased?)…
Roger Bolton: Kevin Connolly has been a BBC Middle East correspondent for five years. I asked Kevin if the job of reporting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is getting even more difficult.
Kevin Connolly: I don’t think so. The pressure comes and goes according to the pressure of the newes. The higher the profile the story has in our news bulletins the more we will hear from people who have very strong views on the conflict themselves about how our coverage measures up against their own feelings.
So the complaints aren’t based upon facts or reason but strong views and feelings so can be dismissed…..however that doesn’t apply to Connolly and his own colleagues where ‘feelings’ and local narratives are the key ingredient in any report it seems…
You know, before I write something for From Our Own Correspondent I will circulate it among my colleagues. I’ve got colleagues who are Israeli Jews. I’ve got colleagues who are Palestinians from Gaza. We have colleagues who live in Bethlehem and in Ramallah and in Jerusalem. So we take as collegial approach as we can because, you know, that brings in feelings that they are coming across in their own communities and the stories that they are hearing reported by their own local media.
He goes on….
We absolutely accept that, you know, we are accountable to the British public and that they are entitled to express what are often very, very strong opinions and a very strong sense of disappointment where they feel that our narrative is not close enough to the narrative of one side or the other.
Ah yes, our narrative, their narrative…..what about the facts, what about not reporting a narrative but what really happened?
Interesting to note that Bolton raises a criticism of BBC reporting but it is one that says the BBC is pro-Israeli.
BBC Watch also investigates the same Connolly piece and asks about the lack of context….
There are lots of newsworthy events happening the world over that deserve just as much time spent on them as that dedicated to the Middle East. We’ve to make difficult decisions based on the evidence and independent verification our news teams can gather in order to report on the news we do. This does lead to subjective decisions being taken on what news we report on and as is often the case the lack of reporting on any issue lays the BBC open to criticism from interested groups/supporters who accuse the BBC of deliberately failing to tell the whole story. This is never our intention.
We’re subject to ensuring our news coverage is of national interest to our domestic audience and there isn’t the time or resources available to cover every current or historical aspect of a conflict that some sections of our audience would like.
As a public service broadcaster and ingrained in our Royal Charter all journalists and news teams have a firm commitment to impartiality and we cannot be seen to be taking the word of interested groups and we always aim to verify all stories we receive before we give airtime to them. The situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories is fraught with difficulties, two sides with opposing views, each seeking to undermine the other. It is a difficult path our journalists take, they’ve to bury their emotions as much as possible to remain impartial when reporting on the attacks that take place in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and any other conflict. They come under intense pressure to report on what one side is saying but they’ve to keep a clear head and remain committed to reporting events as they happen to avoid emotional language.
I can tell you feel very strongly that the BBC has failed to properly convey the impossible situation that Israelis are in. Our only goal is to report truthfully and honestly the situation faced by both Israelis and Palestinians without bias. “
Unfortunately most of that is self-serving rubbish. The BBC seems to be saying that it concentrates on Israel/Palestine because it has good access to information there whereas in other parts of the world it doesn’t….which is why we get relatively little from say Kashmir where Pakistan is running a terror campaign as well as a proxy army, the Taliban, in Afghanistan. Israeli ‘settlers’ may or may not be a problem but are in no way comparable to the extremists of the Taliban…and yet it is the Israelis who get the bulk of the BBC’s evil eye.
As for lack of time for ‘context’, the BBC always finds time to claim Israeli ‘settlements’ are illegal under internationasl law and to always add on the casualties from the last conflict in Gaza to most of its reports. The BBC always likes to play the numbers game…more Palestinians have died, the Israelis have better weapons and bunkers for their kids, so therefore the Palestinians are the victims here….funny how the BBC always finds time and space for such ‘context’.
Yolande Knell displays total ignorance or cynical manipulation of the conflict…..
Knell closed this report by telling BBC audiences that the story of the current wave of terrorism in Hebron is all about ‘narratives’.
“Basically on the ground here you get two starkly contrasting narratives. Speaking to the Israelis over there, they see all of this as hateful, senseless violence. But Palestinians here say that their anger stems from the political situation and their feelings of despair. This is really a nationalistic struggle but increasingly, it’s also taking on a religious dimension.”
So a decades long conflict based upon Muslim hatred of Jews is only now ‘taking on a religious dimension’? Curious how the BBC finds time for a bit of context there….context that just happens to be painting the Palestinians as the victims, I’m sure that’s completely unintended by Knell.
Why do Muslims not object to the creation of Jordan from ‘Palestinian’ land? Because Jordan is a Muslim country. If it wasn’t you can be sure it would be under attack from ‘interested parties’ as Israel has been for 70 years.
The Palestinian’s are in the position they are in now because their leadership and the Muslim countries around them have set a course that seeks the destruction of Israel and of continuous conflict until that is achieved. Nowt to do with the Israelis. Shame Knell & Co can’t find time for that little fact.
Contrast the BBC’s entirely different take on ‘illegal’ Israeli settlers to the one they take on Muslim settlers in Burma where they have been fighting a ‘Jihad’ to annex and establish a Muslim state…the BBC blatantly supports the Muslim insurgents and denounces the native, Buddhist, counter reaction…the BBC goes so far as to tell us that Buddhism is a religion of violence….how different to their narrative on Islam, that well known religion of peace, and Muslim terrorism and extremism.
