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 Schadenfreude  |
Posted on 11/11/2003 11:32:36 AM PST by Pikamax
BBC appoints man to monitor 'pro-Arab bias' By Tom Leonard, Media Editor (Filed: 11/11/2003)
The BBC has appointed a "Middle East policeman" to oversee its coverage of the region amid mounting allegations of anti-Israeli bias.
Malcolm Balen, a former editor of the Nine O'Clock News, has been recruited in an attempt to improve the corporation's reporting of the Middle East and its relationship with the main political players.
Mr Balen, who left the BBC three years ago, will work full-time with the official title of "senior editorial adviser".
It is the first time the corporation has made such an appointment. Insiders say it is a signal that senior executives feel that the Middle East is an area over which the BBC needs to take particular care.
Relations between the corporation and the Israeli government hit a low point this summer when the latter "withdrew co-operation" in protest at a BBC documentary about the country's weapons of mass destruction.
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, later barred the BBC from his meeting with the British press during a visit to London.
The BBC has also been the target of Downing Street accusations that it toed a pro-Baghdad line over the Iraq war and that it influenced the Today programme's handling of the dossier story that is the subject of the Hutton Inquiry.
A BBC spokesman said: "Malcolm is a hugely experienced senior programme editor whose appointment will help us on our relations with all parties in the region."
The decision to appoint Mr Balen was taken jointly by Richard Sambrook, the director of BBC News, and Mark Byford, the head of the World Service. The latter's Arabic Service has been singled out by some critics as the most anti-Israeli source of the corporation's Middle East output.
The BBC denied that the appointment amounted to an admission that it had "got its coverage wrong" but conceded the corporation was sensitive to criticism. He said it was "no longer the case" that the Israelis were refusing to co-operate with BBC journalists.
An accusation frequently levelled against the corporation is that it reports the Arab-Israeli conflict too much from a Palestinian point of view.
Its reluctance to describe suicide bombers as "terrorists" has proved particularly controversial, recently prompting the Simon Wiesenthal Centre to pull out of a BBC series about Nazi genocide.
The corporation faces increasing scrutiny of all areas of its activities during the run-up to the renewal of its royal charter in 2006.
One man??? I suspect he won't have much time for the wife and kids...
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Schadenfreude |
He won't be missing much. She probably wears a burkha anyway.
If it ain't there when the story gets to him, it will be when it leaves.
How funny. Is Christian employed?
Posted by Ron Bong-Dillio Dong on December 19, 2001 at 15:34:46:
Amanpour, my flavor d'jour.
Soak me in the latest edition
of your erutition.
I promise no sedation, you Persian apparition.
I found you in the Gulf War
now give me more
of blood, bombs and Arabs
And from my Scarab
I remove my info-scimitar,
so far, so far, so far...
Although you are a hottie, I see that you are naughty.
Lines in the sand lie not-
you have earned what you have got.
You charge me with your gravitas,
no mas, no mas, no mas...
From tierra on fire
you'll always transpire
the details, bits and data from Talis to Al Quaeda...
You'll take them all on, a queen to the pawn, the alpha to my beta.
My appeal lies in a similar area to watching Katherine Hepburn trying to put on her make-up.
Beer, of course.
We have to have something to go with bratwurst, you know.
Should be
We have to have something to go with bratwurst, don ya no.
Depending on where you live in Wisconsin, it's either
We gotta hab sumpin to go wid dat bratwurst, dontcha know
OR
We gots to hab sumpin to go wit dem brats, dontcha know.
It's a subtle difference. The first is Milwaukee-ese. The second is northeast Wisco.
Mr. Balen, known also as Sheikh Mohammed Abu Balen Al-Makka Al-Jihadi to his followers at the over 12,000-strong Picadilly Mosque, promised a thorough investigation of any bias on the part of BBC staffers, followed by swift martyrdom.
"They will drown in their own blood, their bones scattered by jackals," said Al-Jihadi. "No infidel will be spared."
Prime Minister Tony Blair applauded the appointment, claiming its commitment to diversity as a model for all organizations. Meanwhile, the ICUK, or UK Islamic Council, criticized the BBC for placing a "moderate Wahhabi" in the position, instead of a more mainstream "radical Wahhabi".
This statement convinces me that Mr. Balen won't have any BBC biases. (not!)
CBS should have hired this guy to monitor "The Reagans" movie while it was being made.
Well, it's all the English language, except it's called "monitoring" in Britain, and "censorship" in the USA.
Leni
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