Jeremy Bowen hasn’t been spooked by the BBC’s recent misfortunes.
The recent dent in the BBC’s omnipotence hasn’t affected Jeremy Bowen. He still has plenty of attitude, and confidently emotes overt and subliminal anti-Israel signals in his reporting.
Perhaps he’s unaware that the destabilizing effect of the Newsnight affair reaches far beyond the episodes in question. It raises questions about the BBC’s impartiality as well undermining its reputation for integrity.
Even the government’s antisemitically inclined foreign office has shown that it holds Hamas responsible for the current situation in the Middle East, yet the BBC continually, repeatedly, refers to the ‘assassination’ as the trigger for the recent escalation. Israel started it.
The BBC’s Middle East clique are showing their true colours. They and their colleagues should be Getting a Grip and taking a cool look at themselves. The departure of Entwistle hasn’t fixed anything. They should all be under extra scrutiny, for slapdash journalism, inaccuracy and bias, and if they persist in tailoring the news to fit their agenda they should be caught, reprimanded or despatched forthwith.
Jeremy Bowen’s latest antics are set out in detail at BBCWatch, and by Robin Shepherd at the Commentator. Meanwhile, if we watch BBC News 24 we are subjected to a succession of ‘activists’ and Israel-hating academics who are introduced as ‘Middle East experts’ who bestow their one-sided wisdom upon us. A dire shortage of background knowledge severely hampers the BBC anchor person’s ability to play Devil’s Advocate.
“Israel’s upcoming elections, settlements, peace process,” we hear time and time again, but rarely a challenge to Palestinians’ claims that their rockets are somehow designed to protect their civilians, all of which is in the name of ‘resistance’. What are they resisting? Israel’s existence of course.
Bowen explains that things have changed now that Israel has lost its ‘reliable friend’ Mubarak. That's Mubarak the tyrant who we were glad to topple. Israel and Mubarak, both dastardly allies against the poor Palestinians? I think not. Mubarak was not a true friend of Israel, but he was as afraid of Islamist extremism, just as anyone who acknowledges the reality of Islamist extremism would and should be. Unlike the Arab Spring fantasists of the BBC.
Jeremy Bowen must be near retirement age. Well, he looks it. Get rid.
