Spitting on the BBC

BBC bashing is almost compulsory at IsraelForum. While it's likely that most don't even watch the BBC, the crew at IsraelForum are well trained when it comes to knowing, reflexively, whom they should be hating. And the BBC is high on their list of targets.

Most of us have given up on the BBC and have no interest in listening to them or anyone else defend them. They are, on this issue, a bunch of raving racist a-holes"

Well, I won't shed a tear when the Muslims burn the offices down

I spit on the Beeb

Who cares, let the BBC burn.

The BBC recently released a report (warning - pdf file) of the investigation into the impartiality of their Israel-Palestine conflict coverage. It recommended some changes. The most notable, for the IFies, is that the word 'terrorism' should be used in news reports. This is good news from their perspective, because this is one of their favourite gripes about the BBC; it doesn't use their all purpose term of denunciation. Though their enthusiasm for the term has it's limits. Should the BBC start to use the term to describe all acts that fit the description, it wouldn't be long before BBC headlines started to read something like this - "IDF terrorists kill 3 in Ramallah". This would, no doubt, be a case of anti-semitism rather than the BBCs impartiality in news reporting.

While there was some limited joy for Forum fanatics, they obviously hadn't read the report too carefully, or more likely, at all. For the report also addressed criticisms of an all together different kind, namely that BBC coverage has persistently failed to acknowledge the vast asymmtery between the two sides. Often news reportage has given the impression of a conflict between 2 comparable groups, rather than a state with the largest military in the region arrayed against a group of poor, stateless people living under military occupation. As well, the report noted that the impact of the Israeli occupation on the lives of Palestinian people has been given far too little emphasis. This is a general media failing, related to the if-it-bleeds-it-leads phenomenon. This is the money-quote, which notes the BBCs,

failure to convey adequately the disparity in the Israeli and Palestinian experience, reflecting the fact that one side is in control and the other lives under occupation

Yes, quite.

As a result expect to see more stories on the BBC like this, "Palestinian views on travel curbs".

Which will result in an increase in tantrums by Forum fanatics ranting about the anti-semitic BBC. Of course it isn't, it's just trying to do its' best to provide an accurate picture of the Israel-Palestine conflict to the public. And that is something IsraelForum.com is dedicated to deterring, because a better informed public is likely to be significantly less sympathetic to the Israeli position.