It’s hard to blog about the BBC’s bias without straying from the narrow remit of the BBC’s bias and gravitating to the bias of the interviewees and participants in programmes like TBQs and Andrew Marr’s Sunday morning annoyingfest.
I’m going to use the anti-Nigel Farage manoeuvre to say that I don’t see why we have to see so much of Rachel Shabi on our screens. She’s shrill, biased and irritating. (Maybe that’s why?)
Laura Perrins (and Kathy Gyngell) must have invented some kind of skin-toughening technique as they’re always going to be in a minority on the BBC, and will have to be subjected to boos and heckles, and endure the subsequent fall-out on social media. But someone’s got to do it, and luckily for those of us who want to hear the other side of the story, the BBC is marginally more interested in creating theatre than total consensus.
You can tell how this plays out in the way they frame TBQs. For starters, today’s Big Question about Israel . “Should the UK Trade with Israel now settlements are recognised?” is as imprecise as it is inflammatory. What do they mean “Now settlements are recognised”? Well, the term ‘settlements’ is almost enough on its own, even without the “are recognised” bit. Red rag to a bull, especially when the bull consists of the average panel, the average TBQs audience and yer common or garden average BBC viewer.
My guess is that the BBC saw the controversial (in Israel too) new bill to retroactively legalise settler homes built on privately owned Palestinian land as an ideal excuse to do a bit of Israel- bashing.
Never mind, this is the BBC and we know what to expect. Our loins are girded and our breath bated.
If we’re sticking strictly to the BBC’s bias, we have to confine ourselves to what Nicky Campbell did or did not say, and how he chaired the debate. I imagine he must have given a stern warning to the participants before they got started. Don’t get physical or something?
We already know that War on Want is much more of a pro-Palestinian campaign group than a charity dedicated to addressing “want”, so nothing Rivka Barnard was going to say should have been surprising. Her hypocrisy was challenged fairly robustly by Nicky.
The audience member with the red jumper was confused. I’d hazard a guess that he was a Pakistani Muslim who had been informed that something (Gaza? the PA? Israel? ) was the biggest concentration camp in the world. From the Naz Shah school of philosophy, perhaps.
Although Nicky let Paul Charney from the Zionist federation respond, I do feel that this would have been a good time for the chair himself to intervene over the slanderous and demonstrably false ‘concentration camp’ allusion, which he could easily have done, rather than leave it to the lone defender of Israel to whom the bulk of the audience might be subconsciously applying the Mandy Rice Davies response.
I found Professor Hogwash predictably devious, (But then I would say that, wouldn’t I?) full of the usual inaccuracies and pleas of victimhood - and then setting that sneaky little trap, asking Paul Charney “Do Palestinians exist as a people?” which Charney neatly side-stepped and let pass. Not even worth getting into that one.
Tom Wilson was the other panel member who was drafted in to defend Israel, (double brownie points for not being a Jew) and he duly did, making some indisputable points and posing some difficult questions.
I won’t even mention the BBC’s go-to Moderate Muslim Imam whose diatribe seemed to fizzle out without the finale.
On the whole the studio audience was less hostile to Israel than usual, and I do wonder if the viewers at home might be starting to see the light. At any rate I do believe people are getting tired of seeing and hearing about the Palestinians.
“How do you feel when you use Google?” Nicky asked Rivka Barnard, who wishes to boycott products from Israel.
It’s not just Google you’ll have to forego, though, if your anti-Israel feelings are that passionate. For example, here’s just one week’s worth of Good News from Israel. Good News from Israel / not such good news for BDS fanatics. Good luck with that, as they say.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
New treatment to fight cancer. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (Sep 2013) that Dr. Sarit Larisch of Haifa University discovered ARTS - a protein missing in tumors that regulates apoptosis (cell death). Israeli biotech ARTSaVIT is developing a treatment based on this research and has just received $6.3 million of funds.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-cancer-treatment-co-artsavit-raises-63m-1001170280
