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Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

theguardian.com

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Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#91

Post by forgotoldacc »

YZF wrote: post #73
ralfhn wrote: post #8

Watch how quickly this disappears from the front page despite getting the most upvotes.

[flagged]

Iran isn't an ally of any country in the west. The west says "Iran is an awful, oppressive country" basically daily. What's new to report there? They're already economically cut off from most of the world. There's not much else for us to do.

Israel is an ally of every country in the west. People say "stop criticizing them because you can't do that until you complain about every other problem on earth first!" and it's a very strange, conditioned behavior not seen when problems pertaining to any other country are brought up. And the big difference between Iran and Israel: Israel isn't cut off from the world economically, and in some places (many US states), boycotting them is even illegal.

None of my tax dollars or purchases fund the Iranian government. Lots of our money funds Israel against our will. That's why people get angry.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#93

Post by molteanu »

engine_y wrote: post #25

I read the article but not sure which pro Israeli editorials the BBC has published. My experience is quite the opposite with BBC having a clear anti war stance.

It's about the careful wording, about who gets to be on the spotlight, about who gets to call the other side a tyrant, an evil state, about saying things like "regime change" and no-one batting an eye. Slowly, but surely, you form an opinion as to who the bad actor is as you've seen or read about its bad behaviour (but not of the behavior of the other party)

Most interestingly, it's about who holds the microphone and is allowed to say whatever they want, unquestioned.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#94

Post by crystal_revenge »

billy99k wrote: post #81
crystal_revenge wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this flamebait? Is there another way to report on this topic that would be less inflammatory? Or should media manipulation by foreign governments simply not be discussed and we should just keep quiet less someone get upset? Surely if Russia was manipulating BBC reporting it would be note-worthy as well no?

[flagged]

Curious why you think I would find that an exception? I most certainly would also want reporting on that.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#95

Post by [deleted] »

jedimind wrote: post #70
gruez wrote: post #56

Coming from an outsider, the letter is frustratingly vague. The only concrete allegation is the pulling of the documentary "Gaza: Medics Under Fire", but without a statement from BBC explaining why they pulled it, it's basically impossible from an outsider to know whether censorship is indeed happening or not. The rest of the letter basically down to a he-said-she-said over bias/censorship happening. Owen's article d…

"Instead, the report says, the BBC’s coverage has involved the systematic dehumanisation of Palestinians and unquestioning acceptance of Israeli PR. This has allegedly been overseen by BBC Middle East Editor and apparent Binyamin Netanyahu admirer, Raffi Berg, who is accused by anonymous journalists of “micromanaging” the section." - https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/bbc-impartiality-trust-isra... "Comprehensive new r…

[deleted]

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#96

Post by TimorousBestie »

emseetech wrote: post #79
YZF wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Bob Vylan said "death to the IDF." He didn't call for the death of Israelis. It's the difference between saying "death to the RMP" in Ireland during the troubles versus calling for the deaths of British people themselves. You can disagree with Mr. Vylan or that the BBC should have cut the broadcast but let's not misrepresent the situation.

As they say, a lie travels across the world before the truth can get its boots on.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#97

Post by Aeolun »

atq2119 wrote: post #33
hliyan wrote: post #28

I'm starting to realize, very belatedly in life, that we suffer from an end-of-history illusion in politics and political economy. I used to think we live in a golden age because a hundred years ago, democracy broadly replaced monarchies, market economies replaced feudalism and other coercive systems, and with it went many of the old, indirect mechanisms of subjugating large populations (e.g. moral imperatives throug…

I like your optimism that a decent end state can be reached at all. There are so many ideas that sound good on paper but are bad in practice, and that happen to be convenient for the goals of unscrupulous powerful people. The notion that society as a whole will at some point stop falling for such ideas seems very optimistic to me.

Well, we have been improving. I don’t consider it too optimistic we’ll continue to do so.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#99

Post by topspin »

Recent BBC World headlines:

    Gaza doctor whose nine children were killed in Israeli strike dies from injuries (June 2)
    Gaza now worse than hell on earth, humanitarian chief tells BBC (June 4)
    Three journalists among five killed in Israeli strike on Gaza hospital (June 5)
    Four killed near Gaza aid centre, health workers say (June 8)
    Dozens of Palestinians killed while seeking aid in Gaza, hospitals say (June 11)
    More than 20 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire near Gaza aid sites, Hamas-run ministry says (June 16)
    Israeli forces kill 51 Palestinians waiting for flour at Gaza aid site, witnesses and rescuers say (June 17)
    Eleven killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid in Gaza, rescuers say (June 18)
    At least 12 Palestinians killed waiting for aid in Gaza, say medics (June 19)
    Israeli military kills 23 Palestinians near aid site in Gaza, witnesses and medics say (June 20)
    GHF boss defends Gaza aid operation after hundreds of Palestinians killed near sites (June 27)
    At least 81 people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, Hamas-run health ministry says (June 28)
    Israeli military investigates 'reports of harm to civilians' after hundreds killed near Gaza aid sites (June 30)
    Hundreds of families displaced by wave of Israeli air strikes on Gaza, Palestinians say (June 30)
    Dozens killed in Gaza as Israel intensifies bombardment, rescuers say (July 3)
    Israel's strike on bustling Gaza café killed a Hamas operative - but dozens more people were killed (July 4)
Now, perhaps these anonymous staff make some distinction between headlines and whatever they mean by "PR," but there appears to be zero hesitation reporting everything the BBC can find on the crimes of Israel, real or imagined. Reading the open letter makes no such distinction, citing "reporting" many times. At least two of the above are directly attributed to "Hamas-run ministry," which is somehow a source for BCC's supposedly pro-Israel reporting.

How am I supposed to not see what I'm seeing with my lying eyes? I don't believe I'm capable of this tier of cognitive dissonance.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#100

Post by gruez »

jedimind wrote: post #70
gruez wrote: post #56

Coming from an outsider, the letter is frustratingly vague. The only concrete allegation is the pulling of the documentary "Gaza: Medics Under Fire", but without a statement from BBC explaining why they pulled it, it's basically impossible from an outsider to know whether censorship is indeed happening or not. The rest of the letter basically down to a he-said-she-said over bias/censorship happening. Owen's article d…

"Instead, the report says, the BBC’s coverage has involved the systematic dehumanisation of Palestinians and unquestioning acceptance of Israeli PR. This has allegedly been overseen by BBC Middle East Editor and apparent Binyamin Netanyahu admirer, Raffi Berg, who is accused by anonymous journalists of “micromanaging” the section." - https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/bbc-impartiality-trust-isra... "Comprehensive new r…

>https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/bbc-impartiality-trust-isra...

The tagline is "As many question BBC’s coverage, three academics tell openDemocracy why they don't think the broadcaster is impartial", which I think sums up the article accurately. That doesn't seem to add much aside from proving that there are outsiders (impartial or biased, we don't really know) that agree with one side. It shouldn't be surprising that with any culture war issue, than you can find some academics to be on your side.

>https://novaramedia.com/2025/06/16/bbc-systematically-biased...

Skimming the article, the methodology used is very questionable. For instance:

>Despite Gaza suffering 34 times more casualties than Israel, the BBC ran almost equal numbers of humanising victim profiles.

If you think 1 death = 1 coverage, then clearly BBC is biased. However, 1 death = 1 coverage is clearly not how anyone expect the media should operate. How many people die in civil wars in Sudan or Congo, compared to how much coverage are they getting? Does that mean the BBC has a anti-Sudan bias? Moreover should each death really merit equal coverage? Would it be biased if BBC ran more pieces about the sad plight of Ukrainian soldiers compared to Russian soldiers?

>It was also found to have attached “Hamas-run health ministry” to Palestinian casualty figures in 1,155 articles – almost every time the Palestinian death toll was referenced across BBC articles.

Why is this an issue? In the Russsia-Ukranie war for instance, if you cite casualty figures from Russia, it's pretty obvious that it's from the Kremlin. The Gaza Health Ministry is actually Hamas run, and that fact isn't readily apparent.

There are other serious allegations made in that piece that I don't have expertise to comment on, but the above two snippets don't inspire much confidence.

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