Post by Teddy Bear on Jan 11, 2011 14:53:43 GMT
On new year's eve, according to the BBC news as told to them by Palestinian medical sources, a Palestinian woman died after inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli troops to quell a protest over the security fence. Predictably the story is used to invoke as much anti-Israeli emotion as possible, typical of most BBC articles on the subject.
Honest Reporting picked up on this story and raised questions about this supposed incident, and whether it really happened. Considering the facts against the Palestinian account, I knew the BBC were not going to highlight the possibility that the Palestinians were trying to deceive the public with this false claim, and they continue to run the story as is.
But seeing they can get away with it so easily, the Palestinians know now that all they have to do is intimate that Israel is responsible for killing one of their people and the BBC will run it as fact, no matter how unlikely the claim might be.
Another one yesterday have Palestinian sources claiming a farmer was killed by Israeli troops in the buffer zone (about 350metres) near the border with Gaza. Later in the story we read that the farmer was about 2km from the border. Naturally the likelihood of this account being true doesn't phase the BBC, who are quite happy to run it as fact. I don't expect a retraction either when it's proved to be a farcical claim.
Just think about the dynamics if a farmer was actually shot by Palestinian militants to make the claim that it was the Israelis, for the PR value they believe it affords them, exactly what the BBC is upholding in real terms.
Honest Reporting picked up on this story and raised questions about this supposed incident, and whether it really happened. Considering the facts against the Palestinian account, I knew the BBC were not going to highlight the possibility that the Palestinians were trying to deceive the public with this false claim, and they continue to run the story as is.
But seeing they can get away with it so easily, the Palestinians know now that all they have to do is intimate that Israel is responsible for killing one of their people and the BBC will run it as fact, no matter how unlikely the claim might be.
Another one yesterday have Palestinian sources claiming a farmer was killed by Israeli troops in the buffer zone (about 350metres) near the border with Gaza. Later in the story we read that the farmer was about 2km from the border. Naturally the likelihood of this account being true doesn't phase the BBC, who are quite happy to run it as fact. I don't expect a retraction either when it's proved to be a farcical claim.
Just think about the dynamics if a farmer was actually shot by Palestinian militants to make the claim that it was the Israelis, for the PR value they believe it affords them, exactly what the BBC is upholding in real terms.