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Former chairman accuses BBC of anti-Israel bias

Oct 20, 2015 5:01 pm By Robert Spencer

It’s not just the BBC. It’s the entire mainstream media. And the bias is not just against Israel, but against any and all who stand up against jihad terror and speak the truth about the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat.

Lord-Grade

“Former Chairman Accuses BBC of Anti-Israel Bias,” by Ari Soffer, Arutz Sheva, October 18, 2015:

The former chairman of the BBC has attacked the corporation over its reporting of the recent spate of Arab terrorist attacks in Israel.

Lord Michael Grade, a member of the House of Lords for the Conservative Party, claimed the BBC had failed to show “impartiality,” and focused his fierce criticism in particular on a recent report by BBC correspondent Orla Guerin, which he said promoted an “equivalence” between Palestinian terrorists and their victims.

“I must object to the fact the report appeared to promote equivalence between Israeli victims of terrorism and Palestinians who have been killed by Israeli security forces in the act of carrying out terror attacks,” Lord Grade, who chaired the BBC between 2004-2006, said in his letter.

“An understandably emotional interview is conducted with the father of a dead Palestinian youth who had been killed committing a fatal terror attack. However, the report failed to show the emotional distress caused to Israelis by any of these recent attacks. This is inexcusable,” he added.

“Additionally, it was improper of the correspondent to claim that ‘there’s no sign of involvement by militant groups,’ before immediately showing footage of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) banners at the home of a 19 year-old terrorist who carried out a deadly knife attack at Lions Gate in Jerusalem on 3rd October.

“PIJ is a well-known Palestinian terror organisation and it has since claimed responsibility for the attack and praised by Hamas, another internationally proscribed terror organisation. This directly misleads viewers.”

Lord Grade also berated the BBC for failing to document the rampant incitement spread by the Palestinian Authority, among others, which he noted has “played an undeniable part in stoking tension.”

Omitting such basic information amounted to the BBC failing “to fulfill its obligation to viewers,” he said.

He also accused the corporation of cherry-picking and editing footage to give a picture wholly sympathetic to the Palestinians. Lord Grade specifically highlighted a clip from clashes between Arab rioters in Hevron in Guerin’s report, showing an elderly man confronting Israeli soldiers as they fire teargas.

“The carefully selected footage failed to show the stone-throwing protestors prompting the presence and action of Israeli security forces,” Grade noted. “While this footage is entirely worthy of broadcast, I strongly feel that viewers lacked visual and oral description of the wider context thereby limiting their awareness and understanding of what is an undoubtedly complex issue.”

“Regrettably, this is not the first time the standard of reporting and impartiality has been unsatisfactory in recent weeks,” he continued. “On Saturday 3rd October, I was disappointed to see the BBC News website publish a misleading and counter-factual headline: ‘Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attacks kills two’.

“I note reports that this headline underwent four revisions following public criticism,” he said….

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Filed Under: Israel, journalistic bias Tagged With: bbc, Lord Grade


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Comments

  1. Benedict says

    Oct 20, 2015 at 5:30 pm

    The BBC was known for its biased atritude from the start. It is a left leaning communist tv/radio station whose are the likes of Kim Philby. In a recent press interview the PM of Israel gave a terse reply to the BBC reporter Lyse Doucet. She had no answer to what he said

    • Rob says

      Oct 20, 2015 at 7:47 pm

      Lyse Doucet, another BBC ‘reporter’ (aka ‘lies, deceit’) was well to the fore last year during the Pillar of Defence confrontation.
      totally cynical and one-sided.
      Never mentioned was the 11000-odd Hamas rockets fired into Israel between 2005 and 2012.
      I’m betting Lies Deceit hopped off back to Tel Aviv after filing her BBC reports, secure in the knowledge that the State of Israel would protect her precious ass from Hamas rockets either by shooting them down or by providing bomb-proof shelters for her use.

      • Bamaguje says

        Oct 21, 2015 at 9:51 am

        So what is Ofcom (UK broadcast regulator) going to do about this?

    • Huck Folder says

      Oct 21, 2015 at 1:15 am

      Hi all. I do the best I can, digging out extra facts,
      after reading all the comments first, so I don’t repeat
      what someone else says. But I am just one person,
      with no organization behind me; so I sometimes
      suggest some course of action by those who are able.

      Can anyone ANALYZE ABC, BBC, CBC content for bias?
      It seems that those ‘national’ voices are the worst for
      kowtowing to islam while blaming all others.

      I mean a really detailed analysis of what is included
      and WHAT IS EXCLUDED, the ordering of events,
      the amount of time devoted to each side, what is fact
      and what is opinion (and what is LIES), clearly stating
      the position of speakers and their relevant Dadas.

      Then there would be chronological studies of the
      relative frequencies of different stories with
      statistical measures of their bias.

      I used to read a tiny local (free) newspaper
      called the North Shore News which cheerfully ran
      carefully crafted antisemitic rants by one Dog Collins.
      After many years, one reader called him out
      for his anti-Israel and anti-Jew denigration,
      and succeeded in showing that continuous
      and obvious thread, which far outweighed
      any similar criticisms of Mugabe or Kim Jun Il.

      He was found guilty along with his enabler,
      the editor. So it can work.

      I believe a good historian would be the best
      person for that, but someone ‘neutral’.
      It would be very difficult to find someone like that,
      given that the social sciences are so far left,
      but if the persons calling for that study and
      funding it, could find such paragons that
      both the left and right would agree are neutral,
      then their reports would carry weight.

      • Huck Folder says

        Oct 21, 2015 at 1:18 am

        “Doug Collins”, not “Dog Collins”.

        …

        I think.

  2. Angemon says

    Oct 20, 2015 at 5:41 pm

    Lord Michael Grade, a member of the House of Lords for the Conservative Party, claimed the BBC had failed to show “impartiality,” and focused his fierce criticism in particular on a recent report by BBC correspondent Orla Guerin, which he said promoted an “equivalence” between Palestinian terrorists and their victims.

    Lord Grade is too kind – the BBC portrays the “palestinians” as victims. Is there any organogram of the BBC accounting for professed religions?

  3. The awful truth says

    Oct 20, 2015 at 5:54 pm

    Their head of religious programs is a Muslim. They have enough Muslim newscasters like Michelle Hussein or whatever on the Today program. Bias. Yes. Of course the BBC can’t win easily either way so how about some new news like reporting on undeniable environmental destruction rather than raising green flags with a moon and star all the time?

    • Tommo says

      Oct 21, 2015 at 7:01 am

      Green policies also belong to the rampant left and rejected by most people because of the lies and misinformation surrounding green issues. The biggest threat to our planet is greedy stupid human species whose numbers will rise to 11bn by 2100 before declining.

      However the green future looks very bright with development of the hydrogen cell which is starting to be used as replacement for polluting diesel car engines. A hydrogen cell in your home will also generate all your energy and will hardly cost you anything. . .

      • Angemon says

        Oct 21, 2015 at 1:26 pm

        Tommo posted:

        “Green policies also belong to the rampant left”

        As the saying goes: the greens call themselves green because they’re too yellow to admit they’re red.

  4. Judi says

    Oct 20, 2015 at 6:42 pm

    Orla Guerin is well-known for her anti Israel, pro palestinian reporting. Some years ago there were so many complaints against her that I believe she was sent to all the places nobody else wanted to go to such as Zimbabwe, etc. Seems like she’s back in town and doing what she likes best, ie bashing Israel.

  5. LAKSHMANAN says

    Oct 20, 2015 at 7:17 pm

    It is anti-Hindu also. Because the BJP is perceived to be representing forward castes of Hindus, it always tried to show the BJP and Hindus in poor light as if they champion the cause of under privileged castes (though such divisions no more relevant in urbanised society)

    • JIMJFOX says

      Oct 22, 2015 at 12:04 pm

      India is another sick society. Hindus have much to answer for; the caste system is
      a great evil and rape appears to be a police-tolerated sport in India. Glass houses??

      • Jay Boo says

        Oct 22, 2015 at 12:20 pm

        You are missing the point JIMJFOX

        Palestinian Muslims act as if they have a legitimate holy sight in Jerusalem and the right to illegally occupy the ancient lands of Israel where they do not belong and kill anyone they please while quoting vile verses from the Qur’an and the BBC has the nerve to pretend that Israel is the one causing the problem.

  6. Voytek Gagalka says

    Oct 20, 2015 at 7:17 pm

    The only reason why this former chairman can say such things is that he is, well, FORMER chief. If he would not, if he would still chair that BBC now, he would be fired from his post faster than it took him to spell that obvious fact that BBC is so biased. I wonder what he was doing before, when he still was resident chief of BBC? Did he in any way try to prevent that trend of BBC descending into abyss of becoming virtual propaganda tuba for the left?

    • carpediadem says

      Oct 21, 2015 at 12:52 am

      Exactly, good point.

      The BBC fiction empire about Israel is not a new phenomenon and it have been proArab for decades.

      As former BBC Chair, what was he doing? Did he not notice their venom – no other word for it – toward Israel?

  7. David Levavi says

    Oct 20, 2015 at 10:00 pm

    I don’t understand why BBC is carried by tax funded American public television. It’s bad enough that British taxpayers have to support the BBC. Why are American taxpayers forced to do so as well?

  8. TBlakely says

    Oct 21, 2015 at 12:32 am

    Hmm, the BBC both having a leftist tilt and anti Israel bias…. next we’ll discover that water is wet.

  9. Robert_K says

    Oct 21, 2015 at 4:26 am

    I remember Lyse Doucet for her sobbing report eulogizing the death of Yasser Arafat. Well, I guess birds of feather flock together.

  10. Rod McGregor says

    Oct 21, 2015 at 4:51 am

    They are all at it. Consider this article in today’s Independent On-line: http://beta.iol.co.za/news/hamas-leaders-message-to-sa-1933275

  11. Atonr says

    Oct 21, 2015 at 4:55 am

    Orla Guerin??

    She was the BBC reporter I wrote about just yesterday, in another Jihadwatch article, who was so biased we managed to get her exiled to Pakistan. You mean she is back? Who let her go back to Israel, after the reporting mess she left there last time?

  12. Tommo says

    Oct 21, 2015 at 7:03 am

    Well why didn’t Grade change things when he could as Chairman of the BBC?

  13. Paul says

    Oct 21, 2015 at 7:39 am

    The BBC covered up for child rapist Jimmy Saville for years. When
    the sordid details were made public many of them who still work
    there pretended to be shocked. Best acting I’ve seen in years.
    Their pro-jihadi propaganda aside, that alone tells you everything you
    need to know about their integrity.

  14. Westman says

    Oct 21, 2015 at 11:42 am

    The Germans are wising up to the media with a few adoptable words: Lügnerpresse – liar press, and Lügnermedien – liar media. In the spirit of adopting useful words into the English language I propose that these be adopted forthwith.

    Sample usage: The once great informative BBC has now joined, as lügnermedien, with uber-liberal social engineers and the lügnerpresse in shaping society to the needs of the Eunuchs Unlimited.

  15. undrbed cat says

    Oct 21, 2015 at 12:24 pm

    Thankful, for BBC former chief, Lord Micheal Grade, even though it took a few years to speak out on the anti-bias Israel viewpoint of the BBC, which many have witnessed. The complete ingnorance of media can only be attributed to the “permissible lying”, which is a constant, if you turn to a muslim for information. They are the best decievers. The factual information is coming out but too late in time for many countries are falling. Just read authentic verses in the book that they study, and watch the behaviour. They have been triumphant thru terror sick indeed.

  16. mortimer says

    Oct 21, 2015 at 12:27 pm

    There is no equivalence between an attacking terrorist shot by police who are protecting the public from harm and the victims of a terrorist who is targeting civilians standing at a busstop on their way to their civilian job or on their way to shop.

    It is offensive morally and intellectually to suggest an equivalence. This is obvious bias and propaganda that promotes terrorism. It is Marxist propaganda.

  17. Piccolino says

    Oct 21, 2015 at 2:15 pm

    BBC stands for Biased Broadcasting Corporation and not Best Before Christmas as it claims to be.

  18. Richard Carter says

    Oct 21, 2015 at 7:03 pm

    Unfortunately the BBC reporting of events over the past few years, particularly in the middle-east, has been very biased and very left-wing. Lyse Doucet seems to see only what she wants to see and probably writes her stories prior to her arrival in Israel. If she’d been reporting in 1939 she probably would have blamed the Poles for starting WW2.
    Having said that, let’s not get carried away and denigrate all the BBC or ‘Auntie Beeb’ as she is affectionately known. Apart from its news service it is still probably the biggest and best radio/television organisation in the world. Its output of scientific and cultural programmes is second to none and its factual/historical programmes sold on video and those shown on foreign stations are amazing in their professionalism and detail. Civilisation by Alan Clarke and The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronovski are just two of the highlights of television art in the 20th century.
    If you wish to understand more of the Israeli/Palestinian problem or Islam you might investigate In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg which is an in-depth discussion programme on BBC Radio 4, available on the internet. We may not always agree with the views of the guests but they are always academics and in an hour they can explain far more than the two minute sound-bites on most TV or radio shows.
    Regrettably the BBC has often been used as a political football by both the left and the right and, in a bid the play both sides, has often failed in its duty to present the news without bias. Because of this and in its bid to be popular it has also been prone to scandal and rank stupidity in its employment of unpleasant people despite the warnings from other staff members. The case of Jimmy Saville is interesting; people have asked why someone didn’t stop him sooner? Because you don’t accuse a man of paedophilia if he spends Christmas with the Prime Minister and the Queen on a regular basis.

  19. Rich Rostrom says

    Oct 22, 2015 at 3:50 am

    All foreign reporters operating in the West Bank and Gaza do so on Palestinian terms. They know that if they report anything the Palestinians don’t like, they will be “denied access” to press conferences or places of interest. They employ translators and local stringers who are often minders for Hamas or the PLO. In any case these Palestinian helpers have to live under Hamas/PLO rule, and so are subject to their intimidation, even if they are honest.

    So they self-censor, and uncritically relay whatever the Palestinians feed them.

  20. Baucent says

    Oct 22, 2015 at 8:01 am

    You only have to watch the BBC World News to see a high percentage of Anchors and reporters appear to be muslims. In addition the BBC broadcasts a “BBC Arabic” and “BBC Persian” service for some reason. Of course these are staffed by more muslims and then there is the editorial staff which is also packed with muslims, so the anti- Israel and a highly pro-migrant slant is patently obvious on a daily basis. It is increasingly like al-Jazerra.

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