Baby Killers Update: BBC Responds to HR Criticism
March 15, 2011 12:41 by Simon Plosker
HonestReporting’s criticism of the BBC’s coverage of the brutal terrorist murders of the Fogel family prompted a huge number of complaints to the BBC as well as attracting coverage in the Jerusalem Post.
Much of our critique was directed towards the BBC’s decision to promote an article concerning the Israeli decision to build new homes in settlements, an article that paid mere lip service to the shocking terrorist attack by a baby killer and demonstrated the BBC’s obsession with the settlement issue at the expense of all others.
Our criticism stands as does the charge that the BBC buried the story of the terrorist attack. While the BBC did cover the story immediately following the attack, the coverage disappeared from the BBC News homepage, the Middle East news page and nowhere in the story of the settlement building did any links to the existing BBC piece on the murders appear.
Below is the related story section from the BBC’s settlement article as it appeared on the morning of March 13.
The BBC usually links to related materials on later stories such as the settlement one critiqued above. Instead, the story of the terror attack disappeared from the main news pages, including that of the Middle East news where such items usually stay visible online for a period of at least a few days.
We issued an update to our original critique, also taking issue with the problematic nature of the BBC’s initial coverage of the terrorist attack – note the use of quotations in the headline below.
The BBC later removed the quotation marks, which had cast doubt on the veracity of the terror attack itself. Incredibly, however, those quotation marks reappeared around the word “Palestinian” so moving the doubt from the attack itself on to the identity of the attacker. Such is the BBC’s habitual need to eliminate all responsibility for Palestinian terror.
In addition, a photo of a soldier standing by a signpost pointing towards the settlement of Itamar still remains. Would it have pained the BBC that much to replace this with a photo of the slain family? Or is humanizing the Israeli victims of Palestinian terror too much for the BBC to contemplate?
Even when the BBC does cover the murders, the visual emphasis remains firmly fixed on the location of the event on a West Bank settlement and the portrayal of Israel in militaristic terms.
The BBC Response
This is the standard response sent by the BBC to many of your complaints:
Thank you for your e-mail. We initially covered the murders here on Saturday: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12721170
On Sunday, the announcement about new settlers’ homes was made. Our West Bank correspondent offered analysis saying that it was “hard not to see the timing of the announcement as linked to the killings”. We felt it was appropriate therefore to recount the events at Itamar in this context, and the photograph on the page highlighted the importance of the killings.
However, this was not, as you suggest, our only coverage of the deaths, but the latest version of developments, a normal practice in 24-hour online journalism.
Indeed, whether to deflect criticism from its overall coverage or to avoid admitting burying the story of the murders in the first place, the BBC has quietly updated its settlement story page to include links to the initial story of the terrorist attack.
This may be the closest we will get to seeing the BBC acknowledge a serious error. Regarding the BBC’s overall coverage of the horrific terror attack, the BBC was not the only media outlet guilty of bias. By its actions and focus on the settlement issue at the expense of the murder of a three-month old infant, two small children and their parents, it demonstrated a level of callousness that was not seen elsewhere.
Don’t let the BBC and other major media players downplay the murders by dismissing them as “settlers”. Ensure that the media honors the humanity of the victims. Join the more than 1,400 people who shared the initial communique on Facebook.
The BBC’s response is utterly inadequate and deserves a redoubling of your efforts to hold this media monster to account. Keep sending those complaints to the BBC and demand that it addresses the issues that we have raised above. We cannot bring back the victims of terror but we can at least make every effort to see that the international media, including the BBC, treats them with the respect they deserve and not as anything less than the human beings they were.
Mickey Oberman
8:30 pm
Mar 15, 2011
The BBC and any of its affiliates and representatives and any entity providing news about Israel to the BBC should be barred from Israel as enemy aliens.
It is obvious their intention is to cause as much harm to Israel as they possibly can.
The false and misleading and derogatory information they publish about Israel proves that they are, with regards to Israel, not a news gathering organization but a vicious propaganda arm of Islam.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
75 
2
S Rubicon
8:49 pm
Mar 15, 2011
There are occasions when bigotry is acknowledged & the bigot learns from their error, and the bigot actually reforms. Cynicism is another story altogether.
So, I have been, am now, and will remain, in doubt that most of the world’s media will ever understand their bias, their bigotry, their prejudices. They revel in them. They have been indoctrinated into them. They live by them & thrive on them.
Hate is ugly. Look at many media types & you will see the 21st century example of, hate!
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
48 
0
Esther
11:30 pm
Mar 15, 2011
Maybe the BBC should
start putting quotation marks around the words “settlers”, “settlements” etc….
Where do I sign up to buy one of these beautiful new homes they plan on building? Or at least invest in the development co?
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
18 
1
Niran
11:38 pm
Mar 15, 2011
Metro newspaper of 14 March dealt with these news in a similar way. It appeared on page 29 and under the tilte Israelis approve homes. Here it was reported that the Israeli government has approved hundreds of settler homes after five members of an Israeli family including three children were stabbed to death ………
Other news and articles such as two pages article about “work your body our of the gym” found a more prominent place that the news about the masacare of Israelis.
I sent a complaint to Metro
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
16 
0
Michal Ravdin
11:39 pm
Mar 15, 2011
Sooner or later The people of Europe will learn that Muslim rage has a Satanic way of expression, be their rage caused by settlements, or by banning their women to put on veils in public, or by limiting the number of mosques they want to build all through Europe.
Nothing in the world justifies “hand slaughtering” of children. It is not the first time Palestinians did it. There was the mother and 2 children under 10 years, in kibbutz Metzer, that were executed in their home bedroom, there was the boy whose head was cracked open with an axe in Bat-A’in and many more.
The Palestinian children killed by us during war should have been protected by their parents and by the authorities that should provide them shelters to hide at such times. Our children have vast experience hiding in shelters from rockets aimed deliberately on civilians.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
29 
0
Edwin Frankel
2:37 am
Mar 16, 2011
When a Palestinian school system teaches to hate all Jews, can it not be expected that graduates of the system will attempt and occasionally succeed at murdering Jews? Making excuses for Palestinian angst does not serve the peace process. Any sovereign nation has the right to defend itself against incursions. An incursion on a sovereign state by an enemy anywhere else in the world would be reported as an act of war. This is not true when the attack is against Israel or Israelis according to BBC reportage.
Enough is enough. Stop with moral equivalency and linkage to settlement policy. A three month old infant was murdered as she slept. What could she have possibly done to deserve such a foul end. A three year old was murdered with an older sister and two parents, all in their beds during their holy Sabbath.
How dare anyone do anything but hold their murderers accountable. A pox on the house of anyone who tries to cast this heinous event in any other light.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
32 
0
Nelson T D'Silva
3:12 am
Mar 16, 2011
The BBC has gone steadily from bad to worse in its reporting of events in Israel and the world. It has become a fashion for the BBC to express its bias against countries that the British and the fanatics of the Muslim world look down upon. It is no longer a news media but a propaganda machine for the anti-Semites and hate mongers. I have repeatedly been writing to the BBC about how their news presentation has deteriorated over the past 50 years. But as is the case with any person or institution that has lost its morals, it is next to impossible for the BBC to reform. It is infested with media personnel that are filled with hatred for Israel and any country that has a high moral standard. Being hate-filled themselves, they look at hate-filled crimes as natural reaction, however grizzly and gruesome they may be. The main stream media has fashioned itself as the mouthpiece of the immoral and will continue to offer excuses and fill its columns with praises for terrorists and all those indulging in heinous crimes.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
26 
0
Paladin
3:40 am
Mar 16, 2011
Brilliant comment from Marie that if it were “blacks moving into a KKK coveted area who were killed instead of Jews in a “Palestinian” coveted neighborhood the world would be outraged and the news coverage would be relentless. I recall the venomous outrage hurled at American troops during the Vietnam war, tarring them et al with the moniker of “baby killers” for the deaths of children during a “legitimate” war. We look at those who did that now and realize what fools and idiots they were. We can only hope that today “fools and idiots” will wake up and see the error of their ways. But until then, their hypocrisy and hatred must continue to be exposed for the anti Semitic bigotry it is. May the slaughtered rest in peace, and their families somehow find peace.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
15 
0
H.W.
3:57 am
Mar 16, 2011
the more i read about the media’s focus on what the israelis are doing ‘wrong’ and their lack of focus on the actions of the palestinians, the more i recognize the hatred of non jews towards jews. “esav soiney l’yaakov” even if they don’t recognize this hatred, it’s still there, and without realizing it, they are proving their hatred over and over. By pointing it out, it makes them uncomfortable, and i believe we should continue to do so, as long as it is done in a manner that doesn’t create a chillul Hashem, a negative feeling towards jews. They already have a negative feeling towards israelis and we must not try to aggravate that. we should show that we are calm and rational people, and the more people we influence in that way, the better.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
14 
0
Beautiful Jewess
4:43 am
Mar 16, 2011
To James Robertson,
A. England’s refusal to allow America to use bases in England to refuel en route to Israel occured only 38 years ago and not, as you so cunningly suggested, a “century”‘ ago. Let’s stick to the facts, shall we?
B. The English record of Jew hatred stretches all the way back to the Middle Ages. It includes the abomination of trumped up charges of ritual child murder which originated in England (Simon of Trent and Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, William of Norwich etc) and subsequent torture and murder of innocent Jews, as well as the York pogrom of 1190 where a crazed mob slaughtered 500 Jews and ends with the expulsion of England’s Jews in 1290.
Fast forward to the 20th century and the 1922 dishonoring of The Balfour Declaration, The White Papers of 1939, in which Jewish immigration to then Palestine was severely restricted at a time of such urgency for Germany’s Jews and the Exodous saga. I could easily continue but my time is limited.
B. Anti-semitism in perfidious Albion (oops, I mean England!) and high tea at the Dorchester are two traditions which shall always remain in vogue. You refer to the government of England as an “organization” guilty of the occasional spot of Jew hatred. What a fantastical version of reality you propose!
Why don’t you read George Orwell’s essay on Jew hatred in Britain (“Anti-Semitism in Britain”). It explores the mental illness otherwise known as Jew hatred which afflicts so many British citizens. Also highly recommended is “Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England” by Anthony Julius,Oxford University Press. But for a glimpse into real time Jew hatred in Britain, I suggest the article, “UK Anti-Semitism” by Jonathan Rosenblum.
The BBC’s virulently anti-Israel stance is simply another disgraceful manifestation of traditional British Jew hatred. He who shines a light on the truth is not “despicable”. He who distorts it whilst pointing an accusatory finger at the victim, is.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
25 
0
James Robertson
7:13 am
Mar 16, 2011
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Agree or Disagree:
0 
10
rodney allsworth
5:32 am
Mar 16, 2011
it is really starting to look and read as though the power behind the throne of some of these news papers are muslim money men, never have I heard such twisted writing in all my life.
rod qld aust
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
14 
0
anonymous
9:38 am
Mar 16, 2011
Perhaps every time the “Palestinian” murderers stab “settlers” in their own (settlement) homes, the Israelis should pledge to build 500 new settlement homes for each and every Jew that is killed, and 100 for each and every failed attempt to murder a “settler”. Then when a “settlement” hits a population of 100,000, it would be immediately annexed to Israel proper, along with a landbridge to Israel proper.
If that does not stop the murders, we increase the number of homes built per incident until they learn that terror does NOT PAY. In addition, for every rocket attack, every kidnapping, and infiltration or attempted infiltration to Israel, more homes are built in settlements until they “get it”!
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
17 
0
Beautiful Jewess
2:36 pm
Mar 16, 2011
James.
Should you pay for your forebears’ actions? I think you should stop projecting Christian notions of children paying for their fathers’ sins onto Jews. After all, 2000 years of punishing my people for a murder our forebears never committed is obscene and irrational.
And if you re-read my comment more carefully, you will see that my point is to illustrate that British hatred of the Jew extends back to the Middle Ages and CONTINUES today. Then you wonder why David Star wrote so unflatteringly about your people. How convenient of you to miss the section in which I cited examples of modern day examples of anti-Semitism (White Papers, Exodous etc.) as well as works detailing the scourge of anti-Semitism in Britain today. Perhaps you suffer from an eye disease in which the inconvenient and ugly truth becomes impossible to decipher. The BBC, James, is emblematic of Jew hatred. Its unceasing and unashamedly anti-Israel reporting is sufficient evidence of this fact. But for the BBC to insinuate that the Jewish victims of the crime are somehow to blame makes this an open and shut case of pure, vitriolic anti-Semitism. Why does the BBC justify Arab barbarism by vilifying the victims? The answer is obvious to anyone with a shred of moral fibre, integrity and intelligence. Alas, I doubt you’ll ever see it.
Furthermore, your claim that the Brits have no control over their government’s actions is beyond ridiculous. Ever heard of protests? Letters to the P.M.? You imply that you live under a totalitarian Islamic regime where any dissent is simply not tolerated. (I’m sure your country has a few years of fish and chips at the local pub as well as ‘East Enders’ before Sharia law is finally instituted).
Finally, I pointed out your claim regarding the British government’s treachery during the Yom Kippur war of ’73 simply because your reference to it as having supposedly been committed over a century ago was deceitful. Cunningly so.
It’s not about being a “bigot”. It’s about drawing a logical conclusion from the vast amount of evidence at hand. As a collective, the Brits AND their governments/kings have a long tradition of anti-Semitism. There are reams of evidence which prove this fact beyond any shadow of a doubt. You will either accept this with grace, or, like a coward, refute it in the face of all this evidence.
A post-script for you. Interesting how unlike other European royals, Queen Elizabeth did not attend the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Curious, too, how the ties the British royal family had with the Nazis in the 1930′s is also heavily documented. I’m sure you will conveniently dismiss these facts, too. That unfortunate eye disease…
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
14 
1
MICKEY OBERMAN
3:14 pm
Mar 16, 2011
Beautiful Jewess,
It is comforting to have one such as you, one who is both articulate and knowledgeable,
defending the defensible and attacking the indefensible without being concerned about “political correctness”.
I try my best to do the same but in no way measure up to your splendid letters.
Many thanks,
Mickey Oberman
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
9 
0
Ofra Ben-David
4:24 pm
Mar 16, 2011
These gutter reporter don’t know history or what Muslims the palestinians are all about as for these brain dead reporter is all about Muslims money, just look what happened with n.p.r this past week they were doing business with the Muslims brotherhood or they thought they were.
and the same for the Brits all the care about is the Muslim money despicable and shamless reporters wth no moral fiber.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
7 
0
Anthony Fellows
6:03 pm
Mar 16, 2011
You are all an embarrassment to the human race, there is 0 spin of the absolute slaughter of the Fogel family, period!!!!!!
Agree or Disagree:
0 
6
mickeyobe
8:11 pm
Mar 16, 2011
Hey, Fellow,
Would you please enlighten us embarrassments and explain in English what you are attempting to say.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
4 
0
Beautiful Jewess
11:04 pm
Mar 16, 2011
Why thank you, Mickey. Very kind words. (You make me blush).
Do you not agree that political correctness has led to a virtual dissolution of the line between right and wrong? When murderers’ horrific actions are excused and/or justified – as are the actions of these Arab (“Palestinian”) barbarians, there is definitely something askew.
Naomi
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
6 
0
B Is For Baby Bank
1:02 am
Mar 17, 2011
[...] Baby Killers Update: BBC Responds to HR Criticism | HonestReporting Even when the BBC does cover the murders, the visual emphasis remains firmly fixed on the location of the event on a West Bank settlement and the portrayal of Israel in militaristic terms. B The English record of Jew hatred stretches all the way back to the Middle Ages. It includes the abomination of trumped up charges of ritual child murder which originated in England (Simon of Trent and Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, William of Norwich etc) and subsequent torture . [...]
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
5 
0
Mark Filstein
1:12 am
Mar 17, 2011
British antisemitism is not news. I am surprised everyone is surprised that BBC reports are biased. I wish these murders did not simply justify a construction of 500 more homes but provoked a “eye for an eye ” response from the Israelis , something Arabs would understand. Isralis would do better if they learned from the Russian response to kidnapping of their consulate workers in Lebanon 30 years ago or a recent story when they took care of Somali pirates. Ever wonder why nothing ever happens to Russian vessels or Russian ambassy or consulates anywhere in the world?
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
4 
0
Mark Filstein
1:20 am
Mar 17, 2011
And another good exaplme for the IATA is is the way Sri Lankan government finally solved Tamil tigers rebellion , very good review of it recently published in New Yorker”. As long as they try to have a “measured response” or continue wasting time and paper on “piece talks” there are going to be Israeli babies murdered in their sleep…….
Agree or Disagree:
1 
0