I really don't understand why this keeps happening.
If you've been reading the news online today you'll know that a radical Muslim cleric, Sheikh Issa Ponda, has been on the run after being shot by police on Zanzibar - and, according to the Daily Mirror, has now been caught and is under armed guard in hospital. The Islamist is suspected of involvement in the cruel acid attack on two British girls last week.
I won't quote them all but Sheikh Issa Ponda's flight from the police has been reported right across the media today - in the Mirror, on Sky News, ITV News, Channel 4 News, the Daily Mail, the Independent, Metro, the Daily Telegraph, the Times, the Sun, etc.
Understandably, it's a story their viewers and readers want to be updated on. We want the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
Only the Guardian and the BBC websites have failed to report it. There's nothing on their websites about this story. The Guardian's last report on the acid attack in Zanzibar came two days ago and the BBC have added nothing since early yesterday morning and have made no mention at all of Sheikh Issa Ponda in recent days. So, when will the story finally appear?
I just don't understand why this keeps happening. Do you?
I just don't understand why this keeps happening. Do you?
ReplyDeleteThis must surely be a rhetorical question. It's happening because the default position of the Guardian and the BBC is to obfuscate and strive to minimise the crimes of radical Islam.
In the unlikely event that a Christian preacher was suspected of being behind the savage attack, the Guardian and the BBC would be all over the story, like ants on honey.
Yes, it was really a rhetorical question. The BBC's reporting of this story has been consistently underplaying the concerns about an Islamist motive from the start. Comparisons of various reports at 'Biased BBC' have shown that to be the case.
DeleteI'm still slightly taken aback though at just how far they'll take it though.
The story is still nowhere to be found on the BBC News website this morning, yet it remains one of the main stories on the respective websites of Sky News and ITV News.
Craig,
ReplyDeleteEven that disgusting rag, The Guardian, has updated the story with info on the girls' condition and the fact that one of them has been temporarily discharged from hospital:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/12/zanzibar-acid-attack-skin-graft
But all the BBC can do is tell us about the injured feelings of Muslims, and in bold text:
Tanzanian Muslim leaders have called for an independent inquiry into the shooting of controversial cleric Sheikh Ponda Issa Ponda, who was injured while police tried to arrest him.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23664294
Vile, Islamic-terrorist-friendly organisation.
TrueToo,
DeleteThat's typical BBC.
I see though that Roy Greenslade of 'The Guardian' is speculating that the rest of the media got it wrong over Issa Ponda:
"According to a blogpost by the former Tanzanian-based Ben Taylor, UK media not letting the facts get in the way of a story, British papers may have been guilty of conflating two unrelated stories."
"Taylor contends that the papers don't have a credible source for their claims that Ponda is wanted for the acid attack, adding:
"If I am right, this is pretty disgraceful on the part of the UK press. First, it misleads the families of these two girls by suggesting that progress is being made in tracking down their attackers.
"Second, and more worryingly, it risks inflaming religious tensions in Tanzania further, on the flimsiest of evidence."
"I cannot be certain either way, of course. But Taylor's inside knowledge of Tanzanian affairs does suggest the papers and broadcasters may need to look again at the story."
http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/aug/12/tanzania-national-newspapers?INTCMP=SRCH
That might put a different complexion on things.
It doesn't, of course, alter the fact that both the BBC and the 'Guardian' ignored the Ponda story completely - whether it's related to the acid attack or not; at least until it became a comfortable (for them) 'Muslim grievance' story.
An “Issa Ponda” search on the BBC website brings up several incidences re Ponda, and the link on the right takes you to a Daily Star (!) article that says some ‘pervs’ might be the ones to blame.
Delete'leering pervs' no less!
DeleteIs a ‘leering perv’ pervier than a peering lerv?
DeleteIssa Ponda like a lake-a only pondier?
(I can't help it.)