The dark Joy of Gossip

Christians are not the only ones who should resist the dark joy of gossip, as the the new Pope Francis advised his flock. H/T Damian Thompson. The BBC, take note.

“I hear they have little horns and pointy tails”

 The disclaimers on Twitter do little to conceal the true feelings of hundreds of reporters and journalists employed by an organisation that is supposed to be - is obliged to be - impartial.

As well as its usefulness in relaying as-it-happens news and stories, Twitter exposes their biases, their wishful thinking, their gullibility in unquestioningly relaying propaganda, and their malicious gossip. Anyone, with or without an account can clock a Twitter feed, and see therein 'hearts and minds, exposed as in an open book.'

The BBC has become  a major purveyor of Gossip and rumour

Fanciful claims made by Palestinian rumour-mongers are repeated verbatim on BBC web pages. Tweets are passed round and embellished in a malicious game of Chinese whispers.

Here’s an example from BBCWatch:

This tweeter seems to be a BBC producer based in the Middle East, and very likely the same Jeannie Assad who was “behind the scenes” with the Palestinian  delegation featured in this BBC piece from 2010, helping to rebrand Abbas and promote the ploy of establishing a moratorium on settlements as a precondition to talks.

The BBC does seem to employ quite a few Palestinians, who could indeed, in this “ideal world” that we all bring in when we want to excuse the hopelessness of a situation, be truly professional and cast their personal loyalties to one side; but is this really that kind of world?

On the plus side, I heard a nice programme on radio 4 about one of my favourites, Tom Lehrer. The subject of this witty song brings me back to the beginning.