BBC Watch has posted the third in a series of critiques of Lyse Doucet’s reports on her commemorative visit to Gaza.
This particular episode is the strangest of all, because it’s almost fact-free. You’d think that as the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent she’d have more to offer than a kind of nostalgic misery memoir. Yes, the rubble in Shuja’iya is pretty bloody shameful, (but it’s hardly a patch on the devastation we’ve seen in hundreds of other Middle East cities which haven’t been given the Doucet lamentation treatment) (Kobane) Will Lyse be visiting soon to see whether it’s all put back together again?
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| Not Gaza |
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| Not Gaza |
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| Not Gaza |
It’s not just that she doesn’t allude to any aspect of Hamas’s culpability throughout the whole report. Not a whisper or hint that there’s a self-generated self-inflicted element to the situation. Maybe she’s decided that she doesn’t need to examine any of the political shenanigans that led to all this devastation. After all, she’s reporting ‘what she’s seeing’ just as any disinterested visitor would do.
But hang on. Isn’t she the BBC’s Chief International thingamajig?
As Hadar says, the entire report is conjecture and emotion with a bit of ‘Israel says’ thrown in for good measure.
We are quite accustomed to the BBC’s mawkish obsession with this subject and they won’t look at anything else that is going on. It's left to BBC Watch to remind us that:
“In January 2015 alone, 15,205 tons of construction materials were imported into the Gaza Strip. Since the end of the conflict, 50,000 tons of building materials have entered the Strip and more than 42,000 residents have purchased them.”
I understand that there’s an obesity epidemic there. Why doesn’t Lyse investigate that?
The results showed that obesity and being overweight are highly prevalent among women in the Gaza Strip. Independent predictors of obesity in the population studied were increasing age, high income, and housewives. This finding is an important baseline for the monitoring of obesity and overweight cases in the future and highlights the need for community-based programs to combat this problem in Palestine.
Silicon breast implants, botox, tummy tucks, and:
"In addition, there has been a 300% increase in lip augmentation and beautification.”
I think the BBC’s audience deserves to see the bigger picture, not just snaps from Lyse Doucet’s memory lane disaster tourism.
Yes, I've noticed before just how well fed the Gazan population are - I wondered whether in fact obesity was now a problem. When Hamas abandons its Jew-hating genocidal constitutional clauses, then perhaps we begin to address any grievances the Gazans might have.
ReplyDeleteYou’d think that as the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent she’d have more to offer than a kind of nostalgic misery memoir.
ReplyDeleteNo, the primary job of a BBC correspondent in this case is to tell a story, to get a message across. Facts are entirely beside the point. They are propagandists with bylines.