I think the BBC have got this wrong

So here is the DEC Gaza appeal.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7aCFKM4rq0]

Comments

  1. Elizabeth says

    Thank you for posting.

  2. Thank you for finding this, Kelvin, and making it readily available by posting here.

  3. This whole bbc debacle has become an embarrassment to public service broadcasting – Thompson’s stance is even more skewed considering the other major UK terrestrial channels have agreed to air it:

    http://musingsforamodernworld.blogspot.com/2009/01/bbc-should-be-ashamed.html

  4. Lindsay says

    For the sake of balance, it might be worth pointing out that the BBC have been highlighting the atrocities in Gaza on a daily basis and challenging the Israeli position fiercely as an independent broadcaster should do. Be careful not to follow the Daily Mail’s lead and turn the attention away from Gaza and onto the BBC.

  5. Kelvin says

    I’ve a great fondness for the BBC and happily pay the license fee and think I get good value for money.

    In the case of this DEC video, I struggle to accept the claim that showing it would compromise the BBC’s impartiality.

    Indeed, the not showing of the video seems to me to highlight a problem with the reporting of the last few months.

    It has seemed impossible for the BBC to say anything about Gaza without immediately using a “balancing” piece about Hamas rockets landing in Israel.

    The tricky thing about this DEC video is that is shows the infrastructure of Gaza decimated by a democratic state supported by America and other western countries. The terror attacks are utterly wrong. The collective punishment of the civilians in Gaza is also utterly wrong. But they don’t balance one another out. They are different wrongs.

    Notwithstanding the horrors of the terrorist attacks, Israel has not been decimated in return. The balance was never there in the first place to be reported.

  6. Well, Kelvin, what I want to know is: did you go protest yesterday or last week at BBC Scotland?
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7856164.stm

    Lindsay, the focus has always been on the massacre and need for aid. Each time Mark Thompson opens up his big mouth, he sounds more incoherent. The ABC and Bishop of York have chimed in with protest. The UN has launched an appeal; could the BBC accuse them of taking sides? /sarcasm/. In the Baptismal Covenant (at least in TEC) we state that we will respect the dignity of every human. How can you ignore that in this situation?

  7. I did not go to the protest and was not in sympathy with some of the things said. I don’t agree with the protesters that people should return their television licences.

    This is an editorial decision that I don’t agree with, but I’m not in the business of attacking the BBC as an organisation. Notwithstanding my sadness at the decision not to air the DEC video, I’m convinced that the BBC does immeasurably more good than harm.

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