UPDATE: BBC and CNN React to Pallywood Video Footage
November 18, 2012 9:01 by Simon PloskerThe footage of a beige jacketed Palestinian man making a miraculous recovery after appearing to be injured in an Israeli airstrike was broadcast not only on the BBC but also on CNN.
HonestReporting’s video of this sequence has now been viewed over a quarter of a million times on YouTube, helping to expose Pallywood to an audience beyond our regular readership.
The reactions from the BBC and CNN when confronted with the evidence could not have been more different.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper made an on-air statement (Hat tip: Elder of Ziyon):
Anderson Cooper’s statement:
The video we aired came from the news agency Reuters and their feed to us did not include the image of the man standing. We asked Reuters about it today. They say they don’t know the source of the image of that man standing or when that image was shot. They also say they never saw or shot any similar image. The bottom line is that we cannot independently verify when the image of the man standing was taken… whether it was taken before or after.
The other image was taken of the man being dragged away. We obviously will not be using either of these images again. It is not only a traditional military conflict but also one that is being waged in the media as well and our only goal, as always, is to report the truth, the facts on all fronts and that’s why we’ve sent so many of our own reporters and producers into the field.
But what about the BBC? The Guido Fawkes blog published the BBC’s response:
To the best of our knowledge the pictures do not show any kind of ‘staged’ event – and were run in good faith. The footage shown by BBC News was edited from a longer sequence provided by the Reuters news agency in which the man in question is shown being lifted from the ground. He is then given attention at the roadside, before appearing later having recovered.
We ran a shorter edit of those pictures, and would point out that some re-uses of our output by others online have compressed the sequence further. Steps have been taken to ensure any re-broadcast reflects the full sequence so that it is absolutely clear to our audiences.
In response, HonestReporting’s CEO Joe Hyams said:
How is it that Reuters does not know the source of its own footage? It’s completely unacceptable for a supposedly respectable news agency to package unsourced and unverified footage, particularly when the Pallywood phenomenon is a known possibility.
It’s disturbing enough that outside media outlets evidently do not bother to check the footage that is supplied to them by Reuters and other agencies but it is even worse that the BBC cannot bring itself to admit the obvious even when it is staring them in the face.
Muddying the waters by questioning the credibility of HonestReporting and others who republished the sequence of footage is simply a poor attempt to divert responsibility from where it really lies.
While the BBC may be unrepentant, this episode has served to put the media on alert for any further instances of Pallywood staging going on in Gaza.
You can see the footage below if you have not already viewed it.
Keep up to date on all the latest breaking news and media bias on HonestReporting by checking our homepage and live blog as events happen.
Isobel
3:52 pm
Nov 18, 2012
Here’s the latest BBC bias – or is it crass ignorance? The scene in this take from BBC News is labelled “Gaza City” – but is actually Frishman Beach, Tel Aviv. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151145668963583&set=a.143272338582.114043.517488582&type=1&theater
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Sid
8:16 pm
Nov 18, 2012
Spot on – the trouble is that the objective of the BBC is to show Israel and the Jewish people in a bad light. Some years ago the then chairman of the UK ZF had a meeting with the Director of News, Helen Bowden (now as a result of the Savile/McAlpine affair having stepped down), she advised they had 8000 staff, most in the BBC News Centre in London, and could not easily control them. Well, the new head of the BBC should have learned his lesson and taken cotrol – tell him to his face – tim.davie@bbc.co.uk
In addition, the UK Jewish Communal leadership prefer to bury their heads in the sand rather than open their mouths resulting in “official” defening silence
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Isobel
9:30 pm
Nov 18, 2012
If you read both replies closely, the BBC is clearly lying. CNN say that Reuters “don’t know the source of the image of that man standing or when that image was shot. They also say they never saw or shot any similar image.”
However the BBC are very confident that “He is then given attention at the roadside, before appearing later having recovered.” Where did they get that information from? If Reuters don’t know how that scene got into the footage, how can the BBC possibly know?
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Des in Spain
4:33 pm
Nov 18, 2012
Guido Fawkes wrote the article, same name as the Guy (no pun intended) who tried to blow up
the English Houses of Parliament many years back, and after whom the 5th November celebration is enacted – burning of the Guy. Pity we just passed that date, or this fellow could have gone the way of his ancestor/namesake Guy Fawkes. Petty crooks and liars should be dealt with severely, especially when they influence public opinion against Israel.
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Davieboy
4:44 pm
Nov 18, 2012
Er Des, please read it again. Guido was only quoting the BBC. He’s one of the good guys believe me. He’s a friend of Israel, exposes corrupt MPs and the sham of man-made global warming.
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Jerry
4:44 pm
Nov 18, 2012
I just watched BBC at 9:15 this morning, Toronto time, where a BBC reporter asked an IDF woman about accusations being made about Israeli disproportionate use o f it’s military strength. She gave a good reply, ” BUT” she missed a golden opportunity to turn the question around to put him in a difficult place, this would be ,: what about Hamas’s disproportionate use of rocket attacks into Israel”?
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Jerry
4:48 pm
Nov 18, 2012
The media bias is stacked against Israel, because, tragically this is what makes news!
And in this day and age, anything can be manipulated and massaged to put across misinformation. And even when the source of this misinformation is confronted, the damage has already been done and is irreversible!
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Baruch
5:11 pm
Nov 18, 2012
Reuters is a publicly traded company, aka Thomson Reuters Corp. The CEO is David Thomson of the prominent Canadian-Jewish Thomson family. Before the merger of Thomson Corp. and Reuters the Thomson family held well north of a 50% stake in the Thomson Corp. The stake in the merged Thomson Reuters is likely still very large. Why not contact him or reach out through the Jewish community in Toronto.
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chobers
6:22 pm
Nov 18, 2012
The highly-anti-Zionist/Israel/Semitic New York Times is also owned by self-hating Jews.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Ochs_Sulzberger,_Jr.
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Chuck
5:38 pm
Nov 18, 2012
The problem with outlets like CNN is that no apology coming out of Cooper’s mouth is worth anything since the image was already shown and nothing will change people’s mind (unfortunately).
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Israel’s Media War « Olive Press
6:06 pm
Nov 18, 2012
[...] UPDATE: BBC and CNN React to Pallywood Video Footage http://honestreporting.com/update-bbc-and-cnn-react-to-pallywood-video-footage/ [...]
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chobers
6:19 pm
Nov 18, 2012
“The American are burning in their tanks.”
–Baghdad Bob
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A Few Thoughts About “Operation Pillar of Defense”
8:00 pm
Nov 18, 2012
[...] Fabricated footage of an injured Palestinian man and the denial of both the BBC and Reuters [...]
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Stephen Luftschein
9:58 pm
Nov 18, 2012
I’m not sure how you think the responses are different. If anything CNN’s is worse. The clear implication from Cooper is that the man standing was not after being dragged away. Simply saying they won’t be using this footage again means nothing, since they would not have used it again, anyway.
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JP
10:59 pm
Nov 18, 2012
Did anyone notice in the video a man being given a fireman’s lift (as if too injured to walk) by one of his comrades, not long after the other one? As he was carried out of the picture he lifted his head a couple of times as if wondering how his act was going down with the media. He looked conscious, alert, a healthy colour and not in any pain whatsoever.
The women and children rushing about madly must also have been part of the performance. (Stage directions something like “Woman and children enter running, stage left looking frightened and distressed. Exit. Re-enter stage right and repeat as often as they like”)
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The Sanity Inspector
2:49 am
Nov 19, 2012
The stringers the news wire services use in Gaza are all Hamas supporters, hence the Pallywood productions. Some formerly anti-jihadist websites used to be quite good at exposing this chicanery.
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Gerry Dorrian
4:01 am
Nov 19, 2012
Keep at it! This could come to rival the BBC’s crisis when it neglected to check the sources of a Newsnight program that effectively – and wrongly – outed Lord MacAlpine as a child-abuser.
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steven L
7:02 am
Nov 19, 2012
Reuters and BBC MUST be punished, banished from entering IL until the newspaper recants, pay large penalties and the liar permanently denied entrance. The IL government must take action. The news media will learn very quickly when evidence of their negligence and or collusion is provided not to play according to ideology.
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Stephen
12:23 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Yet another case of the shoddy unreliable unprofessional journalism that we have come to expect of the BBC. The problem is that what can we now believe of the BBC? They appear never to verify their “facts” the issues around the Saville News and the erroneous schoolboy mistake of naming individuals without checking facts means that the Corporation can no longer be presumed to be a serious presenter of News.
However this has a wider disturbing question what “News” provided by the BBC, the once respected organ can we believe? Is it all fatuous biased comment by individuals masquerading as journalists? Oh Lord Reith what has become of the wonderful organ that you created?
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martin
12:37 pm
Nov 19, 2012
The UK Jewish leadership is scared of its own shadow. Many years ago, I was informed by the leadership involved with security that they are scared of a backlash against the UK Jews. No change there then.
Reuters was a Jew and once before israel told the BBC that there would be no co-operatoin with them after yet anothe false story about Israel gassing the Fakes. Reuters ands the BBC should be barred. Who cares about public opinion when they are acting as aNGO for the Fakestinians and Jew/Israel hating lobby.
Call in the UK ambassador (a Jew) and tell him to report back to his Jew hating boss that his comments are unworthy and that his countrry has no right to murder the Taliban in Afghan
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Baruch
3:06 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Honest Reporting, you are doing a great job. Why don’t you build a case about Reuters and take it to CEO David Thomson and the Thomson family in Canada? They are Jewish and might have a sympathetic ear. Reach out to them directly or through the Jewish community in Toronto. They might have an interest in deliberately dishonest reporting impacting the reputation and the value of their investment. Or buy one share of Thomson Reuters and you are a shareholder. Make your voice heard.
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Jeffrey
3:49 pm
Nov 19, 2012
Two years ago the BBC won substantail damages against a production company for supplying it with faked footage because the company used its own staff to pose as customers in a reality TV show about a car boot sale. Now the BBC is once again showing faked footage and Hamas propaganda films on the news as though they were genuine news items. Can this judgement not be used against the BBC to hold them to account and stop them from doing so? Their news reporting is already under investigation following the mis-identification of an innocent person as a paedophile after they failed to check facts and failed to check sources. This more of the same, if not deliberately dishonest reporting.
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Roberto Blatt
4:57 pm
Nov 19, 2012
I’m happy the scandals are almost making BBC colapse. It deserves. Let Discovery or NatGeo (for example) take over BBC scientific coverage. We won’t miss BBC. It’s not like in the WW II or in the times of URSS.
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Media ger sej inte. Inte bloggarna heller. « The Golani Spy
10:12 pm
Nov 19, 2012
[...] CNN och BBC reagerade på en Pallywood-produktion i går – en man sades ha blivit nedskjuten i en israelisk attack, och strax därefter sprang [...]
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