BBC – The Biased Broadcasting Corporation

How amazing is language, that most wonderous achievement of the upright-walking ape. Of all the utterances the ludicrous man-ape has made recently, two of them illustrate just how clever it has become at linguistic manipulation.

First we hear that the Israeli government is keen to investigate any allegation of war crimes in Gaza. Come again? Did I hear that correctly? Had the Nazi occupation of Europe succeeded, I wonder if they would have established an investigation into war crimes in, say, Poland? I’m quite sure they would have set such a thing up and, naturally, that a thorough investigation would have turned up squeaky clean SS guards. Attrocities? War crimes? Surely you jest. Is it just me, or does the establishment of a legal defence team specifically to defend the Israeli military of such charges look a bit, well, telling?
(I use the term ‘Israeli government’ here because the criminals don’t speak for all Israelis, but we haven’t seen those Israeli demonstrations in the UK – not on the BBC, at least.)

Gaza child victims of terror
Second, we hear that in the UK the BBC – hey I was just talking about them – will not broadcast a joint humanitarian aid appeal for Gaza’s people by the Red Cross, Oxfam, Save the Children and 10 other charities (Disasters Emergency Committee – DEC), for fear of sounding – and I quote – “biased”. This from a media organisation that repeatedly used the term ‘unilateral’ (ceasefire) to describe an end to three murderous weeks of heavy bombing and close-range executions of children (eye witness testimony) by one of the best equipped armies in the modern world against a besieged, illegally occupied population. I guess the Nazis unilaterally decided to close Auschwitz, come to think on it. Manipulation of language in the media is key to successful manipulation of the population it is broadcast to, this is old hat (thanks to Mr Chomsky – ‘Media Control’ anyone?).

So here we have it – take a charge against you and simply turn it around. How wonderfully simple! It can’t have escaped the attention of anyone with an IQ above toad level that the BBC management used this same tactic just days after the Israeli government? (BBC reporters on the ground have tried, as best they can, to tell the truth in this conflict. BBC management, however, betray their integrity).

And if I hear talk of ‘alleged’ war crimes much more, I’ll go mad. They are as ‘alleged’ as global warming is ‘alleged’ and how the word ‘controversial’ is creeping into the BBC reporting. Say something is controversial and immediately doubt is thrown at the subject, a popular tactic of those with no defence other than primitive psycho-linguistic trickery. Allegedly, dinosaurs once walked the Earth, but I doubt it personally.

  • “White phosphorus is a weapon intended to provide a smokescreen for troop movements on the battlefield. It is highly incendiary, air burst and its spread effect is such that it should never be used on civilian areas.” – Chris Cobb-Smith, British weapons expert, working in Gaza for Amnesty International (source).
  • Amnesty International accuse Israel of war crimes – including use of truly vile weapons called flechettes
    “The use of flechettes against civilians is illegal.” (Amnesty International – Weapons and their devastating effects on the people in Gaza)

  • Eight Israeli-based human rights organisations have accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza (Al Jazerra).

  • “I don’t know why the helicopters fired at us … only my friends and I were in the street at the time” – Lu’ai Osama Rajab Subuh, 10 years old, blinded by Israeli troops. Source B’Tselem, Israeli Human Rights organisation.
  • Human Rights Watch accuse Israel of using white phosphorous in civilian areas

Filed under: Uncategorized on January 26th, 2009

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