Jerusalem Post: Israel says BBC not reporting war fairly

[furman]

Aug. 10, 2006 1:35 | Updated Aug. 10, 2006 8:06
Israel says BBC not reporting war fairly
By GIL HOFFMAN

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=...

The Foreign Ministry is under pressure from Israeli citizens to resume its boycott of the BBC and to withdraw credentials from its reporters due to "one-sided" reports on the war in Lebanon, Israeli diplomatic officials said Wednesday.

<snip>

The diplomatic officials said the network had not been reporting the war fairly. Senior diplomatic officials in Jerusalem went as far as saying that "the reports we see give the impression that the BBC is working on behalf of Hizbullah instead of doing fair journalism."

<snip>

[Howardx]

1. haha

of course, i wonder what took so long

[movonne]

2. aka; they don't report how they like it...

[Poll_Blind]

3. Israelis ought to watch their use of the word "boycott" lest the rest of..

...world start getting some damned good ideas about how to put pressure on their militaristic, conservative government.

  On second thought, go ahead.

PB

[PFunk]

4. First CNN International, now this...

Isreal seems to give this brand to any network that doesn't portray the war their way. Gee what a surprise. Guess the properganda isn't working.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[OrechDin]

8. Among all Jews? nt

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[OrechDin]

15. Herzl,Dreyfus,Ben Gurion,Rambam,Moses,

Abba Eban,Begin,Baal Shem Tov,Trumpuldor,Jabotinsky,Weisman????

[WiseButAngrySara]

16. Herzl's Diary. ....n/t

[cali]

22. Cherry picking quotes

from any nation's leaders is an exercise well practiced; but it hardly ever leads to any sort of enlightenment about either the nation or its people.

[Violet_Crumble]

26. Herzl wasn't the leader of a nation...

He was the founder of modern Zionism, and he died decades before Israel came into being. Where I disagree with the poster yr replying to is that it's clear from Herzl's writings that he and his ideas were a product of the Enlightenment and there was nothing in the way of guilt, victimisation, or attempts to solidify support for Israel (especially as his ideas were for a Jewish nation-state from what I remember didn't care if it was in what is now Israel or not). Where I disagree with you is this thing about 'cherry picking' quotes. There are some quotes from leaders like Ben-Gurion and Barak that some people would love to ignore coz those quotes don't show them in the light of *peace-maker* or *great humanitarian* etc. While some of those quotes have to be taken in the context of the era they were from, or the situation they were in, that doesn't make those quotes worthless. And an interesting thing to note is that when it comes to cherry-picking quotes, that's a habit that's very popular when it comes to Arab leaders but decried when it's about Israeli leaders. I mean, if I were to repeat a popular quote from Arafat's address to the UN 'I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other.' am I cherry-picking a quote?

on edit: sorry for the crappy sentence construction in there, btw. Plus, I'm not sure if I was entirely clear on what I was trying to get across about quotes from leaders, so I apologise in advance for the waffle

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

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[PCIntern]

21. Who the F==k are you to make a statement like that...

I dare you to make a similar remark about Black people. I just DARE you.

[Violet_Crumble]

23. Here's another blanket statement...

'There will be peace in the Middle East when the Arabs begin loving their children more than they hate the Jews.'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


Can you explain why you imply it's bigotry when a blanket statement is made about Jews, and think it's not when you yrself make and repeat blanket statements about Arabs?

[mom cat]

6. I must remember that next time I need an arbiter of fairness.

[dipsydoodle]

7. Nice to see some support for the UK media

who are usually accused of being biased toward Irsael. They are infact unbiased : that's the Beeb, Channel 4 News and Sky despite the fact it's owned by Murdoch.

[MrPrax]

9. Absurd isn't it?

Both their online and News World Reports here on cable seem mostly pretty innocous -- their only crime I see, is they don't do the very obvious cheerleading expected in the US controlled media.

But they still slavishly follow 'balanced' coverage when THE story is really in Lebanon and not Israel.

That's why it's quite absurd and obvious with the objections -- same thing with Reuters a few days ago...undermine the coverage and leave doubt.

Wonder where all the 'free speech, free press' defenders types went?

They were in full force a few months ago when those racist anti-Islamic cartoons were being published? You think they would be allover some militaristic government trying to control and undermine the press.

[WiseButAngrySara]

11. Freedom of the press only when it serves our purpose! Another one

of numerous ironies in this mad world of current events.

[dipsydoodle]

19. By "our" I guess you mean the USA

However - hopefully your population are gradually wising up to watching news from new stations outside of your mainland. Outside news is beyond *'s control.

[dipsydoodle]

18. No rah rah session news over here

we are English after all - ha ha ! I guess the background is that once upon a time there was only the BBC - very staid and upright. In the old days it was "the fact just the facts". Through to the eighties they increasingly came under pressure from ITN whose newscoverage got better and better both in terms of content and presentation. Sky News was obliged to stay with their formats to give itself credibility and also remain equally unbiased. None of our news channels bear any resemblance to Fox etc.

Our American cousins could easlily draw comparisons by simply watching both CNN and CNN International as the latter obviously recognises that the rest of the world doesn't necessarily want American style news.

On the subject of Israel/ Palestine there may have been more video coverage from all news channels of the Lebanonese landscape itself but in terms of dialogue it has been balance between the two countries.

[MrPrax]

35. I am in Canada...

I could write the same thing about the 'historic' mandate of the CBC and it's -- um -- moderating influence towards the traditionally 'American' styled private sector news formats...

But that would ALSO be a pile of bullshit.

(nice try though

[furman]

29. Eh? Israel is being bombarded with several hundred thousand displaced

Please, there is just as much a story in Israel.

You just don't hear as much about it because more damage has been done in Lebanon
and Hezbollah parades around every dead body for propaganda purposes.

Estimates of 500,000 or more have been displaced in Northern Israel.

[Matilda]

12. Bad BBC - they actually show what's happening in Lebanese

towns and villages.

The Israelis would be much happier with Australia's ABC coverage - even though John Howard thinks
the ABC is full of lefty pinkos, their coverage has been very much from an Israeli perspective.

[WiseButAngrySara]

13. Good for BBC and CNN International. ....n/t

[Behind the Aegis]

17. You support one-sided reporting?!

[Violet_Crumble]

24. It's not one-sided reporting...

Though those who can't tolerate any criticism of Israel would of course claim that it was one-sided reporting...

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

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[jonnyblitz]

28. I suspect that is what you would prefer, one sided.

Fox News and the 700 Club must really suit you these days.

[UndertheOcean]

36. You mean he supports Fox News ?

?

[breakaleg]

14. For years all we've gotten was the Israeli perspective, especially

with respect to the Palestinians. (I'm referring to the news in general, not specifically the BBC).

It had to end some time. Now, maybe the world will make a stand against Israel's policies and the Palestinians break free from occupation.

[cali]

25. Garbage.

I've been following the BBC reporting and it is fair. Characterizing it as "working on behalf of Hizbollah" is ludicrous.

[furman]

31. There is lots of evidence to the contrary

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=4&x_outlet=12

http://politicalcrossroads.blogspot.com/2006/08/bbc-new...

http://www.honestreporting.co.uk/articles/critiques/Com...

[muriel_volestrangler]

32. "Evidence"? Ha.

A blog, a site started by some students "to help Israel", and CAMERA. Let's look at how CAMERA talks about the report into BBC Middle East coverage:

[Violet_Crumble]

33. Uh, those sites are all incredibly biased and one-sided sites...

Yet yr using them in an attempt to argue that credible and reputable media outlets like the beeb and CNN are one-eyed and biased against Israel? I'm assuming yr post was sarcastic, so thanks for the chuckle anyway

[Waya]

27. Oh, waaaaaaaa.......

....give'em a tissue........

[Little Star]

30. Tell them to watch fox, msnbc and cnn they only report favorably

to Israel.