More BBC Follies

BBC reporter’s award stuns Israel

Israeli officials have expressed dismay that BBC reporter Orla Guerin, who has come under sharp attack for what some perceive as an anti-Israeli bias in her coverage, will receive an MBE honor from the British government for “outstanding service to broadcasting.”

Israel has had problems with the BBC before. What’s Guerin done in her reporting that deserves outrage?

Last year, in response to one of Guerin’s dispatches about Israel’s capture of a mentally challenged 16-year-old would-be suicide bomber, [Diaspora Affairs Minister] Sharansky wrote the BBC that it employs a “gross double standard to the Jewish state” that smacks of anti-Semitism….

In his letter, Sharansky quoted Guerin as describing to viewers how the IDF “paraded the child in front of the international media,” then “produced” the child for reporters, “posed” him a second time for the cameras, and then “rushed him back into a jeep.”

Likewise, the Evening Standard, which interviewed Guerin in 2003, wrote that she “questioned Israel’s claim to be a democracy, compared its press freedom with Zimbabwe’s, and accused its officials of paranoia.”

Hardly seems like the kind of behavior that a supposedly objective reporter would engage in. It’s bad enough that the BBC employs such an avowed anti-semite, but the British government gives her an award for her work. Shows you where their heads are at. But wait, there’s more fun from the BBC. From Ace, we learn:

The BBC was last night plunged into a damaging general election row after it admitted equipping three hecklers with microphones and sending them into a campaign meeting addressed by Michael Howard, the Conservative leader….

Last night a BBC spokesman said: “This is a completely legitimate programme about the history and art of political heckling. The programme observes hecklers at other parties’ campaign meetings and not just the Conservatives. The hecklers were not under the direction of the BBC and their activities did not disrupt the meeting in any way. The incident at the Michael Howard meeting only plays a small part in the overall programme. However, we will be investigating the complaint very fully and will be replying in due course.”

I’m sure you will. In honor of this news, I’ve decided to add Biased BBC to the blogroll.