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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

#211

Post by preisschild »

molteanu wrote: post #75

I still cannot get over the fact that we, in Europe, have banned RT on the grounds that it is a publication sponsored by a "foreign" government and, as such, it cannot be trusted. For one, so many publications here in Europe are financed by the local governments and we have no problem allowing them to function and act in the interest or said governments. Two, it flies in the face of an independent, free individual wh…

> have banned RT on the grounds that it is a publication sponsored by a "foreign" government

Not just a "foreign" government, but a government that is waging a hybrid war against the European Union, which includes disinformation through outlets such as RT.

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

#212

Post by CoastalCoder »

memonkey wrote: post #170
notpushkin wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Russian, I wouldn’t trust anything that comes out on RT. Banning it though is a really bad move – something I would expect from the Russian government itself, not Europe. One of the reasons I’ve become disillusioned in EU recently.

Most thinking people will try not to take current event reporting at face value. For many Americans, it's easy to accept a lot of things your Mainstream Media Source gives you (including NPR or NYTs), and ironically when one of the current themes is to distrust mainstream media.

FWIW, I trust NPR reporting to only make true statements.

What they're sometimes guilty of (in my judgement) is one-sided reporting. E.g., regarding illegal immigration, providing sympathetic personal stories of illegal immigrants, but not of the persons hurt by illegal immigration.

It's also possible they've gotten better about this. I stopped listening years ago.

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

#213

Post by ars »

mikelitoris wrote: post #199
Aeolun wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it possible they influence so much of what happens in western politics, or at least how whole nations respond to their genocidal war anyway?

The simple truth is there are a lot of zionists in powerful positions both in terms of governmental and monetary. Open wikipedia and look up cabinets and powerful people in US government since WW2. Pay attention to their ethnicity; even if half are zionists, that's a lot of people. Edit: people downvoting this, first part of the comment is just facts, second part is plausible speculation. Why are you downvoting?

[flagged]

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

#214

Post by pvg »

crystal_revenge wrote: post #105
jader201 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think parent just means that it’s a divisive topic, which means on the internet, that inherently makes it flamebait (and not necessarily through any fault of the reporting). Even on HN (and sometimes, especially on HN). There are some divisive topics that are less prone to flame wars on HN vs. other discussion platforms, but those are fairly limited, and often not political (in my experience).

The problem with this logic is that it is very, very easy for even a small number of people interested in silencing a topic on any issue they're concerned about "divisive" just by intentionally flooding the comments with knowingly inflammatory responses. This has already be used on HN to essentially silence any serious reporting on climate change. Anyone technical with an interest in data will find most climate chang…

It's not some theoretical 'divisive', you can read how these threads go yourself, including this one. The meta discussions also make these a lot worse so it's hard to blame this on some 'small number' of people.

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

#215

Post by propagandist »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #200
propagandist wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I'd think this is more an example of a "genetic fallacy" rather than "ad hominem". I.e., impugning the argument based on who presents it.

Thank you for the correction! Won't mix up my fallacies next time.

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

#216

Post by 123yawaworht456 »

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…

>We probably have another century of socioeconomic and political evolution to go before we reach a decent end state.

I agree with everything you said, but that's a rather odd conclusion. things are getting worse, not better.

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

#217

Post by init7 »

As an outsider, I feel the narrative has totally turned for the rest of the world.

Israeli citizens protesting against the genocide and war crimes rekindled faith that it's mostly the top of govts and military industrial complexes pushing for this.

Not just BBC, most media ended up out in the open this time around. Or maybe it has always been like this, we are just growing up now and taking notice.

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

#218

Post by ars »

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…

Anyone who call it "Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza" is hardly a reliable source.

And the entire criticism is amount of coverage per death? I men the Israeli deaths have names attached to them and you can verify them, the Palestinian ones are just numbered by Hamas. Obviously the coverage will be different.

I skimmed the article by CfMM and it's hardly a neutral source. Like they complain that BBC doesn't call Palestinian prisoners hostages. Well obviously they don't them them that, because they aren't hostages.

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

#219

Post by int_19h »

YZF wrote: post #85
jedimind wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

[flagged]

It doesn't matter if the the original cause for the war is just or not if the war involves mass slaughter of civilians, and concealing this fact is deeply unethical. This is true in all other cases that you mention - whether civilians are targeted by the West and its allies in the war against ISIS, or by Ukraine in the war against Russia, that should all be covered objectively, not suppressed.

Separately from that, you seem to be conflating Hamas with Palestinians in general. Most people killed by Israel in Gaza are not Hamas.

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