Top 5 Media Fails: The Media War Hall of Shame
November 19, 2012 17:16 by Simon Plosker
As Operation Pillar of Defense continues, here are the Top 5 Media Fails as HonestReporting inaugurates its Hall of Shame.
1. Jon Donnison, BBC
for retweeting a dramatic photo of two children wounded in war without making any effort to verify the photo’s authenticity.
Turns out the children were wounded in Syria and the photo first appeared Oct. 28.
He later apologized for the retweet…
but with the original retweet going out to more than 7,000 followers and receiving nearly 100 retweets of its own, the apology was too little too late to undo the damage.
2. BBC News
for refusing to acknowledge misleading its audience with fake footage of wounded Palestinians.
Almost as soon as Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense, the Pallywood machine cranked into gear, creating fake images of Palestinians being evacuated after an Israeli strike. The footage appeared on BBC and CNN reports on the fighting.
CNN took steps after the fact to verify the footage with Reuters, which distributed it. And after failing to get a satisfactory answer, removed the footage and issued an apology.
The BBC, however, stood by the footage, claiming that the footage it ran was an edit from a longer reel. The footage that appeared on the site, however, bore all of trademarks of similar attempts to fake footage on the day of the Mohammed al-Dura incident.
3. Clayton Swisher, Al-Jazeera
for tweeting that Palestinian rocket attacks at Israeli civilians were legal under the laws of war.
In fact, if there is one aim to restricting what can and can’t be done during wartime, it is to protect the lives of civilians.
Swisher not only serves as an apologist for Hamas but also turns the concept of war crimes on its head.
It may be too much to expect journalists to accuse either side of war crimes. But to deny it is a step even beyond that.
This article is continued on Page 2
Beverly Lyons
5:41 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Jerry
6:01 pm
Nov 19, 2012
How fast does light travel? Once the message has been sent, the damage has already been done .
Apologies are not read. How do you convince an anti-semite?
The media knows exactly what it has done.
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Rachel
6:11 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Beverly Lyons,
I disagree with your note that HR should accept apologies. Since the damage has been done, no apology can reverse the damage cannot make up for any damage that his falls statement has made.
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kurt bomze
5:43 pm
Nov 19, 2012
What are the top 5 most even handed print or television sources?
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Tang
6:35 pm
Nov 19, 2012
I doubt one could find five even-handed print or television sources on this subject in the English-speaking world.
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Stanley Kaye
5:56 pm
Nov 19, 2012
I think the 4th- should be first. This was a complete setup involving the Egyptian President. The disgusting thing was that they blamed Israel for killing a child which they had deliberately killed in a terror act. I say deliberately because what could they use as a defence-” that they had aimed to kill another child and this one was killed by mistake”
Again I think that retweeting and then apologizing shouldnt really be on the list- who hasnt retweeted or posted a mistake on Facebook.
The last cartoon is satire. we might find it offensive but it is free speech. I think that the worthy site should concentrate on exposing errors of fact rather than opinions aired however distasteful.
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ygalg
6:05 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Clayton Swisher “Doha-based investigative reporter with Al Jazeera” – he’s a dhimmi no further explanation needed.
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shloime
8:00 pm
Nov 19, 2012
“free speech” and “prejudice” are not mutually exclusive.
nobody is arguing that the guardian cannot express its views, but those views happen to be anti-semitic, and it’s perfectly fair (“free speech”) to call them as such.
der sturmer was also “just satire”.
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Top 5 Media Fails: The Media War Hall of Shame | Blogs about Israel aggregation
6:02 pm
Nov 19, 2012
[...] This article is continued on Page 2 [...]
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Stephen
6:55 pm
Nov 19, 2012
I went to the various links to British stories on what is going on. Few barely support Israel’s right to defend itself, but are unhappy that Israel is actually doing something to defend itself. The rest claim that this was all instigated by Israel, going back to the ’67 war and some hinting 1948.
After all, what is the big deal about a few “home made” rockets “harmlessly” landing in Israel like a nat bothering you? Its those damn Zionists and the puppet US regime! Essentially, all the UK crazies, Jew hating anti-Semites just ooze out from under their protective rocks.
Racist bastards that they are…
… continued
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Stephen
6:59 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Why aren’t the Brits called war criminals, much as they call Israel?
For a few bombs and V1 and V2 rockets, Britain bombed Berlin and harmless Dresden to hell, then enlisted the Americans and others to help invade and occupy poor little Germany.
They just do see it.
Also, wasn’t it the Brits who gave 80% of the land it was administering on behalf of the League of Nations to create Trans-Jordan? Wasn’t this stealing land from the Jews, to whom the land was promised to be returned to?
Old saying: no whore like a British whore.
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Dr. Denis MacEoin
7:49 pm
Nov 19, 2012
The Brits (I’m Irish, but I live among then) have made mistakes. So have the Americans, the French, the Russians, and, above all, the Germans, who still have not paid in full for what they did in the 1930s and 1940s. ‘Poor little Germany’! Were you serious when you wrote that. You know perfectly well what Nazi Germany was like. Diminishing its very great evil is a thoroughly dishonest thing to do.
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Stephen
8:25 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Its sarcasm. I have no pity for WWII Germany.
From what the Brits mostly write, so what if a few rockets land on Israel. No big deal. My point is that you can say the same thing regarding the bombing of London: by their thinking, Britain should never have reacted against Germany.
Its very much a “do as I say but not as I do” argument that they use against Israel.
Personally, since Israel will be condemned no matter what, isn’t it time Israel conducted warfare similar to how the US and UK did and still does? If a rocket is launched from a roof, that building is no more. Who knows, maybe the Gazians will turn on Hamas.
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StorminNorm
8:08 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Heeeey Stephen…
The British definitely can’t forget that the Jews forced them out of Palestine in 1948, even though they had a longstanding agreement to leave (the Balfour Agreement) the area after huge loans from Jews to help fight WW1. When pressed on why they refused to leave in 1948, despite agreements in writing they admitted .(paraphrase)……”sometimes countries make promises they really don’t intend to keep….after all we were fighting a war at the time”……yeah and the rest of the world wasn’t???
The british should definitely clean up their anti-Semitic act!!!!
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Stephen
9:32 pm
Nov 19, 2012
The hatred of Jews went back centuries. The money raised for King Richard’s ransom was taxes imposed upon the Jews of London.
Well before that, a child was murdered in Lincoln county (Lincolnshire?) and a rumour began that it was done by the Jews, so Britain had its pogrom.
Before that, Jews were “Christ killers”, so there was a hatred.
Before that, long before that, the Roman occupiers had a thing about Jews. Just about everyone in the Empire had a friend or relative killed or injured during the wars with and occupation of Israel. So there was a hatred. It most likely became part of the culture in Britain.
There are a lot of contrived reasons from long before ’48.
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steve mann
9:52 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Not forgetting they gave away 80% of that land they promised the Jews to the Hashem tribe-
Of course now known as Jordan!
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Stephen
9:59 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Exactly, and then pushed that 40% of the remaining land be divided between the Arabs and Jews, further reducing Israel.
I keep wondering, how could Britain circumvent its obligations under the Mandate to give away land that it was responsible to hold and distribute as per the terms of the Mandate? The obligations of Britain by the League of Nations followed the Mandate via the UN, which assumed all obligations by the League of Nations.
One could easily argue that it was land stolen from the Jews by Britain and illegally given to the Arabs. You can’t give away something that doesn’t belong to you, even if you are the caretaker.
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steve mann
12:41 pm
Nov 20, 2012
My problem here is , by what you mean as “Caretaker” ?
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Edi
7:44 pm
Nov 19, 2012
If you compare damage to civilian people between Israel and British/American troops in Afganisthan, you will be surprise how low are the civilian afected by Israel.There isn´t any army in the world who cares more about this, but even though it’s a war. Not to mention, Russia in Grozny, Siria, Turkeys, Libya ( with Nato suport; I’m not blaming Nato, but it’s war). The Chinese are very civilized as we have seen in Tibet and Tianamen Square.
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Edi
7:50 pm
Nov 19, 2012
What I can’t understand is why British media is so much against Israel. Do you think the people have the same bias? I was wondering if it’s not because of the years 45/46/47 when the british were atack by the jewish militia? I went many times to england and I don’t feel such a bias. Could be more in the media, than in average population? Guardian and Independent are not serious, in fact, they are lyers with agenda.
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shloime
8:07 pm
Nov 19, 2012
somehow, anti-semitism has been rehabilitated, and it’s now fashionable for the left to “criticize israel”. just like wearing a keffiah in support of “the poor oppressed palestinians”, it’s fash to bash israel.
the trouble is, a lot of those fashionable lefties work in the media, and distort the facts.
even if the bulk of the population doesn’t actively hate jews, they will eventually support the arabs, if they swallow enough “pallywood” bilge.
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Barbara Stone
8:07 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Donnison is the latest member of the Twerps Union – chairman: Jeremy ‘Al’ Bowen – and wouldn’t get a job on any imparrtial news organisation, given his stupidy and bias. Wyre Davis is another who now can’t tell truth from fiction
Steve Bell has not for the first time deliberately fudged criticism of Israel with outright anti-Semitism, but what can anyone expect from the UK’s Der Sturmer (rhetorical question). Goebbels would be proud of them.
Despite the fog of war, all fair-minded journalists should know all about the dissembling of Pallywood, otherwise they aren’t worthy of the tag ‘journalist’.
.
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Michael T
8:49 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Edi,
It’s because until recently Israel had no oil. Now that they do, the Brits may change their tune. Also teh Brits have always had a peternalistic attitude toward the arabs having out Ibn Saud ito powewr and all that. As welll the level of arab/islamic immigration to Britain has been so large that they are probably afrid of their new immigrant population. Although from what I hear the average Brit(not the press) is getting fed up with the moslems. Ther’s actually more support for Israel out there than the press is willing to report.
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Char
9:19 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Add Russia Today to your list, please. They have been spewing propaganda to discredit Israel.
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uilleam
10:00 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Forget about complianing directly to the BBC at the moment, the BBC in the UK are under the cosh. The BBC are in hot water over the Lord McAlpine report and about not verifying stories
also the Jimmy Savile enquiry is also taking a toll, this is a good time to complain about their bias.
So if you are serious my good people. If you want to get the BBC to change, complain to the following website this is the website for the UK Parliament’s commons select committee for culture, media, sport.
Personally if the BBC don’t repent over their bias etc, I would like them off the air, permanently!!!!
http://www.parliament.uk/cmscom.
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Ed Frias
10:36 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Clayton Swisher years ago was shown to be a liar and an appeaser of the mass murderer Arafat.
Read this great article which showed what a liar Swisher is.
http://www.peacewithrealism.org/pdc/swisher.htm
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solveig strand
11:25 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Add Norway to your list.
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JOSE RAFAEL GONZALEZ
12:34 am
Nov 20, 2012
History never forgets. History never forgives. The lies and terrorist tactics from Hamas will receive their just punishment. Allah, God, Hasheem; all three, found Hamas guilty of crimes against their own Humanity. Guilty of crimes against History. Gulity of killing inocent people covered under the name of their beliefs. They are watching and we too…
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Alain B
12:40 am
Nov 20, 2012
There was barely any problems in “Palestine” between the Arabs and the Jews until the Brits came. Throughout their empire, the British modus operandi has always been to divide and conquer, and the best way to divide is by stirring the shit, which the Brits are quite good at. If you want proof, just look at the history of their holdings in India, Africa, Far east, middle east…..etc. I have never understood how a self-respecting Jew, could ever call Britain a friend. An ally? Yes, at the best of times, and at the worst of times? It’s true nature: A backstabber. Long live the Queen (Elton John)
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Jacob Mendlovic
12:47 am
Nov 20, 2012
At the local bookstore, here in Toronto, I browsed through the highly influential Guardian paper, of London, the Saturday issue (biggest Guardian paper of the week). Not one but two photos of wounded Palestinian babies were shown. More important, the letters and Comment pieces are totally one-sided in favour of the Arabs/Palestinians. It was no different at the height of the suicide bombing campaign against Israelis, a few years ago: the letter page, which included petitions denouncing Israel by Jewish quislings, and opinion pieces were overwhelmingly anti-Israel.
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StorminNorm
12:53 am
Nov 20, 2012
Jacob….it’s absolutely disgusting….a country as “pleasant and beautiful” and seemingly fair minded as England should be loaded with soooooo much anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli activity?????
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PETER SM
12:55 am
Nov 20, 2012
Add to the list the state subsidised leftist camp followers of the Australian ABC on lateline last night who interviewed 2 Arabs,without any person from the Israeli side to allow the rebuttal of the innuendo,distortion and outright lies presented by the Arabs
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Dan
2:52 am
Nov 20, 2012
if israel stops short of anything less but complete surrender by hamas they lose.
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