Thursday, December 24 2009

It's been awhile since Trevor Asserson did an in-depth study of BBC coverage. But he posted a new report on Beeb bureau chief Jeremy Bowen's coverage of the Gaza war.

BBC Watch reports are available by request. The Jewish Chronicle sums up Asserson's findings:

The report claimed that Mr Bowen broadcast 58 reports, 38 of which were unbalanced. Of those 38, 98 per cent portrayed Israel in a negative light.

Mr Bowen posted 22 entries on a diary on the BBC website. The report claimed that 20 were unbalanced, all portraying Israel in a negative light.

“The Bowen Diary”, as it was called, also frequently offered up Mr Bowen’s personal opinion, an inclusion which, BBC Watch says, is in clear breach of BBC guidelines.

Posted at 05:23 PM
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Don't overlook two fantastic articles on the status of Christians in Bethlehem.

In the Wall St. Journal, Daniel Schwammenthal picks up on Bethlehem's embattled Christian community:

On the rare occasion that Western media cover the plight of Christians in the Palestinian territories, it is often to denounce Israel and its security barrier. Yet until Palestinian terrorist groups turned Bethlehem into a safe haven for suicide bombers, Bethlehemites were free to enter Israel, just as many Israelis routinely visited Bethlehem.

The other truth usually ignored by the Western press is that the barrier helped restore calm and security not just in Israel, but also in the West Bank including Bethlehem. The Church of the Nativity, which Palestinian gunmen stormed and defiled in 2002 to escape from Israeli security forces, is now filled again with tourists and pilgrims from around the world.

See also Benny Avni's commentary in the NY Post:

Indeed, the Christian population of the entire West Bank -- mostly Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic, with Copts, Russian Orthodox, Armenians and others -- is dwindling.

But, again, the story's the same in Egypt, Iraq and elsewhere in the Mideast. Practically the only place in the region where the Christian population is growing is in Israel.

In Bethlehem, Christians now feel besieged. Growing numbers of rural southern West Bankers from the Hebron area have moved north to Bethlehem in recent years. Many see the land as Waqf -- belonging to the Muslim nation. They increasingly buy or confiscate land -- and talk of laws to ban Christian landownership.

Related reading: 'Christian Groups in PA to Disappear'

Posted at 04:53 PM
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Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski filed a formal complaint to Ofcom over Channel 4's Dispatches: Inside Britain's Israel Lobby. According to the Jewish Chronicle:

Mr Kawczynski called the programme a “witch hunt” and said it “failed to demonstrate any evidence or facts of substance, relying instead on implication, association and prejudice”.

He added that the “core arguments were grounded in antisemitic "the Jews control the world" myths, and used "Orwellian doublespeak to present these views in a more subversively ‘acceptable' way".

Posted at 04:31 PM
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Dear Santa,

Please send me hard evidence that the IDF stole organs from Palestinian kids. I don't have any, and Jewish bloggers are still breathing down my neck. Notwithstanding this Dishonest Reporting award, I still consider myself "nice."

Sir, let me remind you of your ties to the 2001 Alder Hey scandal. It's very curious that all the improperly harvested organs came from British kids on your "Designated Naughty Children" list.

It would be a real tragedy to see your image equated with the Israeli army amid calls for an international investigation, especially right before Christmas.

I look forward to your reply.

seasons greetings,

Donald Bostrom

Posted at 09:34 AM
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The Israel Project released an eye-opening collection of stats about Gaza. I'm just focusing on the humanitarian aid. Further figures about Hamas terror and the Iranian connection are all there, as are sources.

It's well documented, so check out the footnotes there. I'm just focusing on the humanitarian aid.

900: Percent increase in humanitarian aid delivered to Gaza in 2009, compared to 2008.

630,253: Tons of humanitarian aid delivered to the Gaza Strip, Jan. 19 – Dec. 13, 2009.

24.5 million: Gallons of heavy-duty diesel fuel delivered to the Gaza Strip, Jan. 19 – Oct. 31, 2009. (That's 92.7 million liters.)

10,346: Gaza residents who entered Israel for medical and humanitarian reasons, Jan.19 – Nov. 7, 2009.

57,295: Monthly average (in tons) of humanitarian aid entering Gaza since Operation Cast Lead, Jan. 19 – Dec. 5, 2009.

11,508: Monthly average (in tons) of humanitarian aid entering Gaza from February – June 2008, a period of intense rocket fire.

34,253: Monthly average (in tons) of humanitarian aid entering Gaza during period of calm, July - December 2008.

18,500: Permits Israel issued to Gaza residents to enter Israel or travel overseas in 2009.

28,400: Flowers from Gaza scheduled for export to Europe on Dec. 10, 2009.

250,000: Flowers from Gaza scheduled for export beginning Dec. 13, 2009.

17: Attacks on Gaza goods crossings by Palestinian terrorist groups in 2008.

8: Years Israel has endured rocket, missile and mortar fire from Gaza.

1: Israeli left in Gaza – Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, kidnapped by Hamas from Israel on June 25, 2006.

Posted at 08:19 AM
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Wednesday, December 23 2009

Memri flags the latest Palestinian spin games:

The Association of Arab News Agencies has tasked the Palestinian news agency Wafa with preparing a document setting the terminology to be used for Arab-Israeli conflict, with the aim of preventing the use of Israeli terms and of maintaining uniformity.

Reuters already did that.

Posted at 10:02 AM
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I'm glad to see The Guardian distinguishes between unethical organ harvesting (which is akin to the Alder Hey scandal), and outright body snatching (as Donald Bostrom insists).

Check out this correction:

We should not have put the headline "Israel admits harvesting Palestinian organs" on a story about an admission, by the former head of the Abu Kabir forensic institute near Tel Aviv, that during the 1990s specialists at the institute harvested organs from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers without getting permission from the families of the deceased (21 December, page 15). That headline did not match the article, which made clear that the organs were not taken only from Palestinians. This was a serious editing error and the headline has been changed online to reflect the text of the story written by the reporter.

Related reading: The Forensics File

Posted at 09:01 AM
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Tuesday, December 22 2009

Our annual recognition of the most skewed and biased coverage of the Mideast conflict. See HonestReporting's Dishonest Reporter Awards 2009

Posted at 01:17 PM
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Harry's Place slams the BBC for being bullied into changing this story.

You wouldn't know from reading it now, but the anti-Semitic atmosphere was worse than the Beeb would now have you believe. Jonathan Hoffman blogged the BBC's explanation. I added the video link for background.

After publication it quickly became clear that there was more to what had happened in the meeting than was apparent from the video and Mr Hoffman’s allegations. As soon as that became clear the story was amended to reflect the differing views of those who had been at the meeting.

It is regrettable that the original story did not reflect a wider range of views and the journalist concerned has been made well aware of the requirement to do so in the future.

Do you think Peter Oborne -- who accused HonestReporting of bullying the BBC -- will investigate this?

Posted at 11:48 AM
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According to the Jerusalem Post, Egypt’s new border wall with Gaza is sparking a crisis for Hamas. Reporter Khaled Abu Toameh concludes:

An all-out confrontation between Hamas and Egypt will undoubtedly undermine Mubarak, because it will make him appear as if he's helping Israel and the US in their war against the movement. A confrontation will also send the message that Mubarak is also involved in the "siege" on the Gaza Strip.

Hamas, on the other hand, stands to win from a standoff with a regime that is regarded by many Arabs and Muslims as a puppet in the hands of the Israelis and Americans. And any victory for Hamas is also a victory for Damascus and Teheran.

A look at LA Times coverage of the Egyptian security barrier shows that very spin game in action.

Posted at 11:00 AM
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Monday, December 21 2009

Western papers are picking up on this video aired on Israeli Channel 2 featuring an admission that personnel at Israel's Institute of Forensic Medicine (better known as simply Abu Kabir) harvested organs from Israelis and Palestinians without permission from the families.

The video was made in 2000 by Nancy Sheppard-Hughes, an anthropology professor at U. California-Berkeley, who was doing research there. According to AP, the professor released the video now because of the continuing controversy surrounding Donald Bostrom's Swedish blood libel claiming the IDF killed Palestinians for their organs. 

To its credit, The Guardian's coverage of the new video carefully noted:

However, there was no evidence that Israel had killed Palestinians to take their organs, as the Swedish paper reported.

Abu Kabir is a civilian institution overseen by the Ministry of Health, and Dr. Yehuda Hiss and his staff have a lot to answer for. This could also become an Israeli political hot potato in the health ministry too because organ harvesting was a dodgy issue for Hiss years ago.

The IDF was never linked to improper activity before Bostrom's baseless buzz. It's clearly an issue of terrible violations of medical ethics where Israelis and Palestinians were victimized by Abu Kabir staff. Nothing indicates nationalistic-motivated malice.

But none of these facts reached the editors of Australia's Daily Telegraph, who absolutely mangled this headline:

So did The Local, a Swedish-based English-language site:

Posted at 01:56 PM
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Sunday, December 20 2009

The BBC responded to listeners outraged by Michael White's recent comments on BBC Radio London's Breakfast Show. While discussing the attack on Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, White, who is The Guardian's associate editor, said:

In Israel they murder each other a great deal. The Israeli Defense Forces murder people because they don't like their political style and what they've got to say and it only means that people more extreme come in and take their place.

The Beeb's complaints dept. wrote back:

Having investigated your complaint, BBC London would like to apologise for any offence you might have felt on hearing Mr White's comments. However, we would point out that Mr White is not a BBC journalist, and he was clearly introduced to listeners as a commentator from the Guardian newspaper.

He was putting forward his own views with his own choice of words, and, as with other commentators, the listener is free to make up their own mind on the validity of his arguments. The BBC's advice to its own journalists would be to use plain and simple language, rather than make value judgements, but we cannot apply the same guidance to interviewees.

Mr White's comments about Israel were a brief aside, along with other remarks about Northern Ireland, during the interview about Signor Berlusconi. In these circumstances, the presenter had to judge whether to divert the interview into a discussion about what Israel calls 'targeted killing' or his comments about Northern Ireland rather than concentrate on the matter in hand.

Given this background and the incidental nature of Mr White's comments, we believe the presenters were right to concentrate on the substance of the interview.

Even if White was referring to targeted killings, that's not what came out in the interview. A sharp interviewer with a little chutzpah could've stopped White in his tracks and followed up on his silly accusation. But it didn't occur for the Breakfast Show hosts to do that because White's language is mainstream in the UK media.

Despite the BBC's reply, it's valuable that people complained. If the Beeb can't see past its own institutional bias, it's up to listeners to speak up.

The BBC is correct on one point: White was clearly introduced as a commentator from The Guardian, and we are waiting for the paper's readers' editor, Siobhain Butterworth, to respond to our concerns. HonestReporting was Cced on literally hundreds of emails to Butterworth, so she is surely aware of the problem.

Posted at 01:56 PM
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December always brings MSM year in review articles, commentaries, slide-shows, etc. Being that the year winding down is 2009, this means "decade in review" angles too.

Its very difficult to predict what kind of spin these decade look-backs will take. The tone and nuance of these big picture articles and photo essays will shed some light on how successful media watchdogs and bloggers have been in the last few years. Last week, I blogged MSNBC's encouraging sign regarding the Mohammed Dura affair.

My colleague, Mike Fegelman, who directs HonestReporting Canada, got me thinking more about this after we discussed one such article by veteran CBC journalist Neil MacDonald. At this post in HR Canada's blog, Headlines & Deadlines, Fegelman aptly addressed some surpisingly good points and some not-surprisingly bad points MacDonald raised; the writers of history's first draft may have shifted their mind-set ever-so-slightly.

There are a lot more decade in review features still in the MSM pipeline. Do you think they're significant, and what are your expectations?

Posted at 08:55 AM
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