It seems like less than a week ago I listened to The Art of Now, narrated by the quavery-voiced Errollyn Wallen. I didn’t think much of it. Well, it was less than a week ago, and BBC Watch has come up with a forensic take-down of the programme. Do read it. We heard
“A completely context-free account of the second Lebanon war in 2006.”
“How that war began and what was happening on the other side of the border have no place in this story – and neither does the all-important context of the Hizballah HQ in a specific neighbourhood of Beirut.”
followed by more decontextualised accounts of Jenin, riddled with omissions and pure anti-Israel rhetoric.
“The second story’s location is Jenin and Ahmed Tobasi sets the scene by telling listeners that “when Israel was created” his grandparents left their village and “came here to Jenin refugee camp”. No context – such as the invasion of Israel by surrounding Arab states – is provided at all.”
Here the bias is blatant, unchallenged and relentless. The BBC cannot now claim to be impartial.
More Middle East shenanigans from Radio 4's WATO with Mark Mardell on...he had Jack Straw on, so that he could basically lay into John Bolton and US foreign policy. He gave the Straw version of events with NO INTERRUPTION from the usually trigger happy Mardell. So, he was allowed to cover up his own naive dealings with Iran's Mullahs which led nowhere over several years while Iran built up their nuclear capability and make out the problem was all to do with American "intransigence". Meanwhile, all we heard from John Bolton was a montage of bellicose statements, incomplete rebuttals making his defence sound weak, and disconnected comments that made him sound deficient in reasoning.
ReplyDeleteBBC Bias at its best!