In the Telegraph, James Warrington has written an excellent piece on bias, antisemitism and the use of language in the coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict by Left-leaning media outlets and its implications for journalistic impartiality. Here’s an excerpt:
For Israeli satirists, the BBC’s coverage of the Hamas conflict was simply too good to resist.
In a sketch on Eretz Nehederet, Israel’s answer to Saturday Night Live, actors lampooned the British broadcaster’s coverage of a rocket attack on a hospital in Gaza with a spoof news bulletin.
“More, more,” urges the stern-looking presenter, clad in a blonde wig, as the number of alleged fatalities from the attack jumps randomly higher. “We love Hamas,” reads the scrolling text below. …
But beneath the comic veneer lies serious concern. Across Israel, and around the world, frustrations have grown at how many parts of the media have reported the conflict.
The BBC, a lightning rod for controversy, has found itself at the centre of the firefight. But it is not alone. Publications including the Guardian and the New York Times have repeatedly come under criticism from politicians and Jewish groups amid allegations of bias and even antisemitism in their coverage.
For many observers, the conflict has exposed a clear hypocrisy in how Left-leaning media outlets, who pride themselves on their progressive stance, approach stories about Israel. And behind the scenes at these organisations, bosses are grappling with divisions among their politically-charged employees as tensions bubble to the surface.
So as the conflict drags on and the threat of escalation lingers, will the media emerge unscathed as the western Left indulges in Hamas’s poison?
Since the terror attacks of October 7th, all news outlets have been plunged into a quagmire of confusion, disinformation and conflicting testimony. But amid all this, it is those organisations to the left of the political spectrum – whether in their internal culture or more overtly in their output – that have found themselves most often under pressure.
The BBC, New York Times, Reuters and Press Association were all forced to backtrack over their breathless reporting of the blast at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza that killed hundreds of Palestinians.
The media outlets were quick to conclude that the explosion had been caused by an Israeli strike, despite relying on Hamas officials as their key source. U.S. intelligence officials now believe the blast was caused by a failed rocket fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The BBC apologised for speculating on the cause of the explosion, but not before Israel accused the broadcaster of perpetuating a “modern blood libel” – a reference to false claims dating back to the Middle Ages that Jews killed Christian boys.
U.S. President Joe Biden was reportedly furious at the New York Times’s credulous coverage, warning it could have led to an escalation in the Middle East. The U.S. newspaper offered a full apology, admitting its editors “should have taken more care with the initial presentation, and been more explicit about what information could be verified”.
While the hospital blast marked the nadir of press coverage of the conflict to date, it is far from an isolated incident.
The BBC was forced to launch an urgent investigation after several of its journalists in the Middle East appeared to celebrate the Hamas attacks.
Meanwhile, the public service broadcaster has tied itself in knots over its refusal to brand Hamas a terrorist organisation, opting instead to use the word “militants”. …
Furious debates over language may seem parochial, but on topics as fraught as the Israel-Palestine conflict, words matter.
When a murderous mob stormed the Dagestan airport in Russia in search of Jewish passengers from Israel, the Associated Press newswire described the incident as a “protest”. This, in turn, was picked up by publishers including the Washington Post.
And when a Gazan who featured in a 2019 BBC documentary said revolutionary songs “encourage you to rip a Yehudi’s head off”, the broadcaster caused controversy by translating the Arabic word to “Israeli” instead of “Jew”. …
Whether through overt antisemitism or more subtle uses of language, the controversy has shed light on the contradictions embedded within Left-wing media outlets.
While claiming to speak truth to power and be an arbiter of morality, the publications appear blind to the prejudices espoused by many of their employees, and in turn in their coverage.
Worth reading in full.
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ICC issues a demand that Sir Winston Churchill be disinterred and put on trial for defying the National SOCIALISTS.
Hahahaha! This could happen!!
Absolutely. New research shows he authorized an attack on peace-loving Germany.
Dresden, Cologne, Hamburg… thousand bomber raids = genocide.
War is a dirty business. You quote three attacks. The German people weren’t rounded up and put to death by their millions. The merits of mass bombing on population centres in terms of the duration of the war can be discussed both ways. Genocide, it wasn’t.
It was a planned genocide which didn’t work out as the planners had hoped because it took them too long to master the technology to a sufficient degree to accomplish what they had hope to achieve. There was no reason to round anyone up as people were simply targetted in their homes in densely populated areas after someone had figured out that these would “burn well.”
The military merits of aerial mass slaughter of civilians to break their morale don’t need to be discussed. In cases the necessity of a land campaign until almost all of Germany had been occupied didn’t already make this clear, US “morale bombing” in total overdrive, followed by a hasty withdrawal from the war theatre in SE Asia has answered this question: There are no military benefits.
Apart from that, intentional mass slaughter of civilians is a war crime. Intentional destruction of civilian infrastructure to accomplish mass slaughter of civilians (the dambustet raids) is a war crime. And firebombing of cities to accomplish mass slaughter of civilians is a war crime as well.
There are also a few million German civilians who fell victim to Russian ethnic cleansing of eastern middle Europe.
About time the Israeli genocidal maniacs were arrested.
As I type this the ‘votes’ on GlassHalfFull‘s comment: thumbs up show minus 3 and the thumbs down show minus eight. I have no idea what minus 3 thumbs up means or how it can be done.
I once ‘liked’ somebody’s comment and it stayed on zero. People have pointed the mystery of the thumbs out before. It’s further evidence to me how pointless they are because they don’t even function properly and change/influence absolutely nothing. Most sane DS subscribers will be back posting what they want, whenever they want, irrespective of how many little red/green numbers they collect, so why have them in the first place?
The only thing I like your comment is that you and your up-voters are funding the DS.
Why?
You don’t seem to be gaining any agreement here at least.
Well here we are again. It is a regrettable loss of lives, but genocide it isn’t. The maniacs are Hamas and Hezbollah who indoctrinate their kids and put AK47’s in their hands, and dynamite around their waists. Don’t bother replying…
It’s my duty to reply to correct your falsehoods.
Even Jewish experts on genocide and the holocaust agree that Israel is committing “genocide”.
●”It is no longer possible to deny that Israel was engaged in systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal actions”
Professor Bartov, a former IDF soldier, is considered one of the world’s leading specialists on the subject of genocide.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/13/israel-gaza-historian-omer-bartov
●”Yes, it is genocide. This is exactly what genocide looks like”
Amos Goldberg, professor of Holocaust History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, wrote the following article about the situation in Gaza for an Israeli online magazine.
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/prof-amos-goldberg-yes-it-is-genocide/
●”A textbook case of genocide”
Raz Segal is an Israeli who is Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Endowed Professor in the Study of Genocide
https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide
A range of views are available, but cutting and pasting stuff from naysayers on the internet isn’t changing my mind. I believe the Israeli’s have got this right, and that the ICC is nothing more than another do-good court acting beyond its remit. Please dont reply. I wont be posting again on this thread.
Yes there is attempted genocide – by Hamas and Hezbollah trying to erase Israel from the map.
Is this deja vu? What happened with the last arrest warrant?
These kids haven’t got a hope in hell of turning out like decent human beings when they attend UNRWA Jihadi School, have they? Indoctrinated to hate from birth and doomed, courtesy of their Jew-obsessed death cult, destined to be like one of their terrorist, psycho heroes. Sad;
”EXPOSED: We have obtained exclusive interviews of Palestinian students revealing what they learn in UNRWA schools. Meet Mohammad: “The solution for Jerusalem? We kill the Jews. We get rid of the Jews. Inshallah, Jews will be wiped out from all of Palestine by the grace of Allah.”
https://x.com/HillelNeuer/status/1859550369967223197
https://x.com/KenBelt3/status/1859567580706439326
Here are your darling Israeli Jews singing the following (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvTyg1kJGzM):
Let the IDF win and f*** the Arabs,
Ole, ole, ole, ole,
Why is school out in Gaza?
There are no children left there.
The amazing thing was the Jews obviously have such a clout in our media world that they managed to turn the hooliganism in Amsterdam around so as to depict the Israeli perpetrators as the victims! And everybody fell for it – or was told to fall for it.
And here again is the wonderful IDF dressing up in sexy panties and generally having a ball blowing up people’s houses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEo813rYm8g.
The day before yesterday Israel bombed Damascus and yesterday Palmyra (also Syria), all in addition to all of Lebanon, not to mention at home in Gaza.
All in the name of self-defence?!
Of course, this is in addition to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, where the IDF is assisting (other) criminal gangs in stealing humanitarian aid deliveries so that they can sell the materials at extortionate prices to the starving Palestinians.
And we are supposed to praise all Jews? Can you inform me why?
Israel has been at war with Syria for decades, I think it might date from 1948.
I am being unfair since not all Jews will support the Israeli actions. But AIPAC has all US politicians in its pocket and apparently a rich Jewish lady donated $100 million to the Trump campaign, which will ensure a strong pro-Israel presidency. Netanyahu has nothing to fear.
Yes i can…… Zionist indoctrination….
By judging them for defending Israel from self-confessed genocidal terrorists, they condemn themselves.
So will the leadership of Hamas be on the warrant list any time soon, in relation to the events of October 7th 2023?
Also still waiting (unexpectantly) for Tony Blair to join the list one day..
Now can we have arrest warrants for Putin & Zelensky for Genocide Against Slavs, and for assassinating political opponents?
And arrest warrants for Lula & Moraes for crimes against the Brazilian People, attempted assassination of the true leader Jair Bolsonaro, and arranging a Fake Coup, just like Erdogan did in Turkey, as an excuse to arrest military patriots?
And arrest warrants for Tony Blair & Gordon Brown?
That’ll do for a start…
In other news: ICC’s latest report says the holocaust was also perpetrated by the Jews. Calls for reparations to be paid to Germany to redress the historical injustice.
Signed by committee chairman B.E. Zebub
I guess I’m asking myself the same question many others are too:
Why not Blair and Bush for their illegal invasion of Iraq which has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the displacement of millions, or Obama for drone strikes all over the middle east, or Cameron and Sarkozy for bombing Libya and overthrowing the government leading to the deaths of thousands. Or Xi Jingpin for the arbitrary internment of hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs in western China.
Eventually these contradictions become impossible to ignore.
Oh well that will dissapoint all the war loving, pro- pointless death and destruction zealots on here… And thats about all of them….
Always surprising how many deranged folks there are around….
And if you’re going to respond…. Prove the point that it isnt pointless……….
Its quite clear to any sane person that Israel want the Palestinians gone…….
https://fb.watch/v-dftjxTJA/
All reactionaries are paper tigers. Like being savaged by a dead sheep.
I think the Israeli Ministers will manage to survive it.
Why is Tony Blair not wanted by the ICC for war crimes?
The smell of Anti Semitism is very strong,
Will Xi of China also get an arrest warrant?
He has comitted crimes.