British Media Coverage of the Middle East conflict

[whiffey]

Does anyone think the media coverage of the crisis is biased ? Listening to the BBC and now the ITV coverage, everything is anti-Israel. They can't do a damn thing right. Bush is evil, Blair is evil, so it goes on and on.

How would the world turn if the state of Israel were to be wiped out ? That would presumably make all the pc brigade and the BBC happy, but would it solve anything longterm in the Middle East ? Seriously - would it ?

[jno]

I haven't heard any BBC newsreaders say Blair is evil. Can you provide a quote?

[Dizzieblonde]

A few days ago it struck me that there was a bit of a bias, but with the BBC concentrating on the damage Israel had caused, and ITV more so on the damage caused by the Hezbollah - rather than both being anti-Israeli.

It was the ten/ten-thirty news a few days ago, but from what I remember, the BBC crew was based in the Lebanon area, and the ITV crew in Israel, so I suppose that would influence what they reported.

[jno]

you're quite right, Dizzieblonde: coverage is influenced by where different media have their reporters. And in times of war it's not always possible to get them where you want them. And especially on TV, reports often depend on whether they have footage: though they can just interview their reporters standing against a photo, they prefer to show as much action film as they can.

[Dicko_82]

Whiffey, you have hit the nail bang on the head!

Every report I watch seems to be anti-Israel. It is worth remembering that Hezbollah started this conflict before the intentional capture of the Israeli soldiers by firing rockets at Israel. I have never seen this reported on the likes of the BBC (maybe because the media were not present then).

All the footage from the current conflict appears to come from inside Lebanon & the 2000 odd rockets Hezbollah has fired at Israel get the odd mention here & there but are never photographed.

The BBC have a bias to everything they report on these days, which I feel is wrong as they are funded by the general public and should always report from an impartial view I feel.

[maxximus]

perhaps you would prefer a steady diet of cnn(conspiracy news network) or fox news. i used to get the bbc for free but as of about a year ago it got replaced with yet another u.s. propaganda station(imagine that), i now have to pay for bbc, which i do. thousands upon thousands of my fellow canadians don't however, the dumbing down of society, you have no idea what bias is my friend until you have watched what americans(not by choice) call the news, consider yourself lucky and more informed. i have my canadian news channels also. i realize the bbc is not perfect but did it ever cross your mind that in this instance they might be telling you the truth, it does appear to be the world majority opinion, as you don't have to look hard on the net. to find pictures of dead babies, women, children and innocent civillians. surely you don't think they are killing themselves!

[LazyGun]

Last BBC broadcast I watched about this conflict spent time on the damage to Lebanon by the continous shelling by the IDF, then showed the damage to property and casualties in Israel through the missiles being fired off by Hezbollah.

They then spent time covering the IC response and the difficulty in getting everyone to agree on a course of action acceptable to all.

Seemed fairly even handed coverage to me.

It would appear that bias is more commonly detected by those who have a bias or agenda of their own, which isnt supported by the report/article/broadcast they complain about :)

[Andromache]

Sorry to disagree whiffey, but one of the pleasures of moving to Britain was the lack of blatant political bias and the amount of fair and equal reporting from all of your news organizations, be it the BBC, ITV or Sky.

At least here you can complain and disagree about reports of which you disapprove without fear of political retribution.

[goldenboy]

if you want pro israeli bias in this regard then read the 'impartial' reporting of the sun. our last bastion against the yogurt knitters who thinks its fun to take a negative opinion to extra judicial killing.

[nev2u]

I love israel and will always support them!!!

[dummkopf]

Instead of bombing civilian areas why don't the Israeli 'special forces' go in' and root out the Hezbollah terrorists ? I think the Israelis are losing any public sympathy/support they may have had at the start of this conflict.

[Lonnie]

Apart from the biased reprting, of which there's no doubt,.

Fact,

For every fifty minutes of reporting from Lebanon, ten minutes from Israel, even the timescale given to each country is biased.

dummkopf, Hezbolloh has puposely situated themselves in civilian areas, how would you go about getting them out, without harming non-combatants?.