Op-Ed: BBC Exposes Its Mideast Bias?
July 2, 2012 12:08 by Simon PloskerThis opinion piece by HR Managing Editor Simon Plosker is republished courtesy of The Commentator.
In 2004, the BBC conducted a thorough internal review of its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The contents of the Balen Report, authored by Malcolm Balen were never released to the public.
That the BBC spent some £250,000 successfully fending off legal attempts to get the report published led many to conclude that the report’s findings probably confirmed the view that the BBC’s coverage was at best, seriously flawed and more likely, biased against Israel.
While the Balen Report has been locked in a dark vault in BBC HQ, this last week saw the very public release of an internal BBC review into its coverage of the so-called “Arab Spring”, commissioned by the BBC Trust.
This report’s author, Edward Mortimer, a former United Nations communications director, was broadly positive about the BBC’s reporting. He did, however, identify a number of serious failings.
If Mortimer’s findings are a good indication of how the BBC reports on the Middle East in general, what would happen if we were to speculatively try to place these findings into the context of BBC reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Might we come up with a version of “Balen-lite”? Allow me to try.
“Over-excitement”
There was acknowledgment from BBC Head of News Helen Boaden that some of the coverage, particularly from Libya where BBC journalists were “embedded” with rebel forces, was sometimes infected with excitement leading to a failure to explore both sides of the story. This was particularly evident with the delay in reporting human rights abuses by the Libyan rebels.
The BBC seemingly divided Arab rebels versus dictatorial regimes into a simple fight against good and evil. This would leave little room for acknowledging, for example, the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt or the presence of Global Jihad extremists amongst the Libyan rebels.
To most observers, the demise of Colonel Gaddafi’s regime was not something to be mourned. But does this mean that BBC journalists found themselves eliciting sympathy for one side over the other, possibly in breach of BBC impartiality guidelines?
Read the rest of this op-ed on Page 2
Op-Ed: BBC Exposes Its Mideast Bias? | Blogs about Israel aggregation
12:19 pm
Jul 02, 2012
[...] article can be viewed at Op-Ed: BBC Exposes Its Mideast Bias? on [...]
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Jeb Stuart
3:45 pm
Jul 02, 2012
BBC coverage and its extreme ineptitude to foreshadow events, and then cover them was mirrored by many American news organizations as well. One I think MSNBC dnews directors great story, was ow he hid cameras from the police in the hotel overlooking Tahir square. Egypt is not the sort of country a reporter is advised to go wandering in and today with more Sariah Laws being imposed a foreigner can run itno some serious trouble just as the Coptics are finding out. The media has become through intimidation and self-imposed-limitations the useful idiots of jihad. Good hotels, with bars, and drinking water are magnets for most reporters in hostile Islamic regions.
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blue_&_white_avenger
4:29 pm
Jul 04, 2012
The copts have run into serious trouble, as you put it, by simply being who they are. In a way, they suffer like the Jews have done over the centuries by being different. Their story is different from the Christians of Iraq (mostly have fled the country over the last 5 years) or of Lebanon.
Basically, they have nowhere to go & no-one prepared to accept them.
Not a very happy situation.
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Lynette
4:20 pm
Jul 02, 2012
it is important for people (and especially those who have a British TV license to whom they are obligated by their Charter to answer ) to continue to challenge the BBC over their biased reporting and appeal against their explanations if they are wrong. .They will need to employ more people to respond to complaints and will be more likely to think twice about putting out misleading information. that will generate complaints.
In 2005 one of my complaints met with the response “not enough people would be offended by this” Don’t give the BBC the opportunity to use this excuse for slandering the Jewish people again!
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Marion Zeiger
4:22 pm
Jul 02, 2012
BBC constantly confirms my definition of their call-letters: Biased Broadcasting Corporation. Their reporters consistently take a single view–e.g., Good Guys, Palestinians; Bad Guys, Israelis; Good Guys, Lybian Rebels; Bad Guys, Government. What passes for in-depth reporting ignores the nuances of the situation on which they’re writing, and their biases violates the underlying vow of responsible reporters–seek out and disseminate truth, without bias or the taint of personal opinion. Until BBC inculcates this philosophy into every member of their staff, they will continue to lack validity, their stories, both written and broadcast, will be just that–stories, not news reporting.
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blue_&_white_avenger
4:39 pm
Jul 04, 2012
Yes: the Beeb has a narrative to which all reporting must conform. I don’t know who wrote the Israel-Arab one but he was no lover of the Jews.
For antisemites, Israel represents a gift from Heaven as they have free reign to criticise it, castigate it & in effect demand its destruction whereas it’s definitely infra-dig to voice the same well-known antisemitic tropes against Jews themselves.
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steven L
6:04 pm
Jul 02, 2012
Who finances BBC intellectually?
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Harvey Rogers
6:06 pm
Jul 02, 2012
The BBC has displayed a hatred of Jews and Israel akin to that of “Der Sturmer,” in Nazi Germany. Someone in its leadership is devoted not to covering news of the Muslim desire and activity devoted to their expressed desire to destroy Israel and kill all Jewish people. When looked at realistically there can be no other explanation for BBC’s course of conduct. I would hope that there is some way to root out the person or persons responsible for that conduct. The editor of “Der Sturmer,” waseventually hanged as a war criminal. There is no need to hang the person or persons responsible for BBC’s conduct in its attempt to aid the Muslim cause in their attempt to destroy Israel and kill Jews.
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Nathan Zafran
3:32 pm
Jul 03, 2012
It seems such a waste of time criticizing the BBC, over it’s twisted and distorted reporting against Israel, and its’ acceptance of Arab evidence for granted. A) the Beeb is immune to the complaints about anti-Israeli bias and B) The Arabs don’t care if their constant lies are exposed. No one dares to complain against them, thus the same obvious lies can be repeated over and over again no one cares, especially the BBC. For example, has any media, (BBC included), truthfully mentioned that the so-called “Arab Spring” is turning out to be a Muslim hurricane and that dictatorships could possibly be replaced by worse dictatorships – (see Iran)? It’s easier and less risky to bash Israel.
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Op-Ed: BBC Exposes Its Mideast Bias? | Jokes of The Conservative Papers
2:56 am
Jul 04, 2012
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Jack Kessler
5:43 pm
Jul 05, 2012
It is worse than the writers above claim. If it were mere bias, BBC management could be persuaded by repeated exposure and embarrassment to mitigate or even drop their anti-Israel propaganda line. But one is reminded of Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center, which receives 89% of its funding from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That is how Carter went from Camp David in 1977 to calling the anti-suicide bomber barrier “apartheid”. NOTHING will persuade Jimmy Carter to change his tune so long as the king pays the piper.
It is hard not to believe that BBC’s budget is not funded in some part by Arab petro-dollars. It converts those inclined to anti-Semitism into those committed to it.
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Ed Frias
3:55 pm
Jul 06, 2012
Jack Kessler to show you what an Israel hater Jimmy Carter is.
Carter quoted a fake Mandela quote about Israel being aparthied, when the quote was by a Palestinian Pallywood liar who pretended to be Mandela. Yet Carter still used the fake Mandela quote.
Go to this link.
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2007/03/jimmy-carter-quotes-fake-mandela-latter.html
March 09, 2007
Jimmy Carter quotes fake Mandela latter to prove Israeli “apartheid”
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Ed Frias
3:57 pm
Jul 06, 2012
Syria runs 27 torture sites.
http://news.yahoo.com/syria-running-27-torture-centers-rights-group-050836605.html
July 3, 2012
And just think Carter thinks Assad is some moderate.
No wonder Carter thought Yasser Terrorfat was a peacemaker.
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/12048
Assad’s Emails Hacked: Jimmy Carter Embraced Syria Regime before Obama.
Gianluca Mezzofiore
February 9, 2012
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BBC-Schwachsinn also doch nicht ganz so monolithisch « Medien BackSpin
4:26 pm
Jul 13, 2012
[...] ihre hausinterne Sprachregelung, was Terror betrifft, ihre Blindheit gegenüber Terror, ihre absolut verantwortungslose Haltung, was ihre Berichterstattung über Terror betrifft, dazu die Tränen, die sie für den [...]
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david bernstein
5:31 pm
Aug 26, 2012
the brits have’nt changed …same entrenched , feeling harried by jews, poor defenders of the empire rule in palestine and the world…..can’t accept their diminished role in world politics…….colonial charges have thrown the brits aside, except for their adoption of the policies bringing financial aid,political power to these newly emergent states-the heirs to english colonialism……..they view the tumoil and bloodshed in the mid-east as a normal progression and evolution…..the jews of england who started the the entire process of a ‘jewish’ state in palestine, have been silenced by the ‘lord brits’…….but england is on the wrong end of history !
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