Saturday 30 August 2014

Who's really hit a nerve with Jon Donnison?


Someone is very sore about BBC Watch. You might also say #obsessed. 

Jon Donnison, though back in Oz (where his job is to report on Australian affairs), is still obsessively tweeting about Gaza at the moment. And about BBC Watch and CiF Watch. And, yet again, he's happily scrapping with an Israeli spokesman, this time Yiftah Curiel, Spokesperson of the Embassy of Israel in London.

Here's what's been happening so far:
Yiftah Curiel ‏@yiftahc  4h
@JonDonnison @BBCWatch you can surely appreciate the importance of media watchdogs, exposing bias, pointing to errors, fake photos etc...

  Duncan ‏@duncana_  4h
@JonDonnison that’s a bit harsh on Mr Palmer.

 Jon Donnison ‏@JonDonnison  4h
@yiftahc @BBCWatch No. They're (she is) embarrassing. Do/does Israel a disservice. #crywolf

 Jon Donnison ‏@JonDonnison  4h
“@duncana_: @JonDonnison that’s a bit harsh on Mr Palmer.

  BBC Watch ‏@BBCWatch  4h
. @JonDonnison Thanks so much once again for the free promotion. Really appreciated. @yiftahc

  e ‏@e606e  4h
I think @BBCWatch does an excellent job holding a mirror to the BBC. Not everyone likes what they see @JonDonnison #bias @yiftahc

  Jeff Gazzard ‏@JeffGazzard  4h
@JonDonnison @BBCWatch Unfair. CP was useless not barking

 Jon Donnison ‏@JonDonnison  4h
@yiftahc as an official representative of the Israeli govt, I am surprised you associate yourself with such a fridge, one trick pony group.

 Jon Benjamin ‏@JonBenja  3h
@yiftahc @JonDonnison @BBCWatch Quite right Yifta. If allegations r rebuttable, rebut away, but b prepared to face critics, b held to acct.

 Yiftah Curiel ‏@yiftahc  3h
@JonDonnison you obviously have deep personal issues with @BBCWatch, I'll leave you to it; be careful of the rocks and glass house though

  Jeff Gazzard ‏@JeffGazzard  3h
@JonDonnison @BBCWatch For clarity, elements of the Communist Party were too. Although not the underlying principles of Marxist/Leninism.

  Martina ‏@martina__1974  3h
@JonDonnison @yiftahc @BBCWatch She's embarrassing you, that's for sure. #Shame to bias reporting.

  Neil Turner ‏@NeilofWatford  3h
.@JonDonnison Methinks he protesteth too much. Apologies to Shakespeare, but not to Donnison. Must be great to be totally unaccountable.

  Jon Donnison ‏@JonDonnison  3h
@yiftahc I am sure they/she feel (s) reassured that as on official representative of The Israeli government they/she have/has your backing.

  Murray Freedman ‏@fcdesign_murray  3h
@JonDonnison @BBCWatch Sounds to me like BBC Watch has hit a nerve. Why else would you keep mentioning it?

 Yiftah Curiel ‏@yiftahc  3h
@JonDonnison don't put words in my mouth; all I'm saying is, you are well placed to appreciate the importance of media watchdogs, R we done?

 Yummy Sabich ‏@YummySabich  2h
@JonDonnison I have yet to see @BBCWatch be wrong, but you are wrong all the time. Your biased reporting does you a disservice.

 Paulie11 ‏@Pauliem11  2h
@JonDonnison @yiftahc @BBCWatch why a disservice?

5 comments:

  1. Jon has left an open goal with that Tweet. If Hadar was a lone voice (which she clearly aint) that would trigger the proportionality question. The BBC has a massive advantage in that it “has the ear of the public”, so it’s incumbent on people like Donnison to at least give polite consideration to her criticisms, rather than dismiss them merely because it’s a ‘lone voice’.

    Pretending he hopes she’s being paid by the word (of course he hopes no such thing) is a wee bit more than a witticism about the ‘monumental waste of time’. It alludes to the myth that all pro-Israel activism (hasbara) is paid for. You know, mercenary Jews. Of course Jon probably forgoes his salary and propagandises for the Palestinians out of pure altruism.

    The whole put-down is a monumental deflection because he couldn’t (be bothered to) refute the substantive points BBC Watch makes.

    He goes on to accuse her of doing Israel a disservice. (cry wolf). But of course the fable has a real wolf, and so does Israel.

    I think he believes that BBCWatch’s forensic dissections of the BBC’s slipshod reporting are too unforgiving. Too picky, too pernickety, perhaps. He’s forgotten that this is what happens when someone is held to account. He must know that. Any of the trials and enquiries we’ve seen on TV. - Chilcot, Leveson etc., necessarily go into the minutest detail. That’s the accepted procedure. It has to be done.

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    Replies
    1. I'm coming to the conclusion that he's got issues not only with BBC Watch but also with the BBC.

      From everything he's posted on Twitter - and his almost complete refusal to broadcast on Australian affairs during his year as the BBC's Sydney correspondent - it seems pretty clear that he doesn't think he should have been re-assigned to largely white, racist Australia, with its mean conservative PM and nasty 'hardline' anti-Islamic immigration policies.

      He gives every impression of feeling nothing but contempt for 'non-cosmopolitan' Ozzies and, very obviously, would have much preferred to remain alongside his beloved Palestinians, baiting Israeli spokesman on their behalf.

      His manipulative, pro-immigration 'FOOC' today [beginning and ending with those "generous" Gazans] is further proof of that.
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04frbnv

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    2. Doing a study of Radio 4's 'FOOC' ['From Our Own Correspondent', for those not in the loop!] throughout the period that Jon D has been its main Australia correspondent [since Sept 2013] shows that he's been very quiet indeed - most unusually for him.

      Besides today's pro-immigration piece, he's done a 'FOOC' on (1) Gaza, (2) the Tour de France, (3) the "heated debate about how much climate change is to blame" for bush fires in Australia, (4) on a Syrian refugee who's been a boon to Australia [another pro-immigration piece] and (5) on how much bigger Australia is to tiny hard-done-by Gaza.

      That's yet another clear piece of evidence as to Jon D's bias.

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    3. Incidentally for those who missed today's 'FOOC' and are wondering whether Jon Donnison's piece is worth listening to, please allow me to summarise...

      It was largely saying that Australia is a land of migrants (he said that at least three times) and that Australia is so much luckier than places like Gaza, where people look out to sea with longing eyes hoping to live an Ozzie-like life of relative luxury where people drink expensive whisky rather than tea.

      Lots of people say the Ozzie government is being mean and racist trash for refusing to open its borders to the likes of Jon's Gazan chums.

      Jon himself loves the cosmopolitan side of Sydney with its melting pot of different immigrant peoples. He even likes the "Hebrew" food. (He said that conspicuously).

      Yes, polls say that most Ozzies support Mr Abbott's "hardline" immigration policy but please think of those Gazans sitting on the sun-kissed Mediterranean shoreline, looking away from "the chaos and carnage" and dreaming of "the Lucky Country".

      You don't really need to listen to it now. That really is it in a nutshell: A typical BBC report on Australia's immigration policy from a particularly biased BBC reporter.

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    4. You almost make it sound like Donnison is another Mardell. Although Mardell was excited to come to the US because he could get close to his beloved Obamessiah. He hates the country now, and misses Socialist Europe (never mind the racism, because slavery).

      Donnison was probably happy to leave the pressure-cooker and relax for a while, but there's obviously no fierce moral urgency with which to puff up one's ego in Australia.

      One of those Twitter correspondents should ask Donnison how much he really knew about the extent of the tunnels, which surprised even Israeli intelligence. And then ask him how much he reported on what was really going on in Gaza schools.

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