ABC’s anti-Israel bias kicks in
(ABC1 7.30 Report)
There was a certain inevitability about the ABC coverage of the renewed violence in the Middle East.
For years, the national broadcaster has been at the front line of bias against Israel and current events are proving depressingly repetitive.
Take last night’s 7.30 Report coverage from Deborah Cornwall.
DEBORAH CORNWALL: But many believe the timing of this attack may have more to do with the Israeli elections just two months away.
Cornwall does not offer a single piece of evidence to support this claim. Not one “expert”. No United Nations commissioner. Nothing. To represent the views of “many” Cornwall can’t even offer “one”.
Anyway, “many” also believe that Israel’s attack “may have more to do with” responding to military attacks by Hamas and other Gazan terrorists against Israeli civilians.
DEBORAH CORNWALL: Israel says their decision to launch an attack follows weeks of rocket fire from Hamas breaching a six month ceasefire which ended officially just 10 days ago.
Cornwall presents this fact – that Hamas broke the ceasefire and has been firing rockets into Israel – as some kind of contestable claim.
And then there’s this:
DEBORAH CORNWALL: …prompting Hamas earlier this year to blow a hole in the fence that divides it from Egypt; so Gazans could buy basic goods like food and medicine.
Wrong. Hamas has opened illegal border crossings into Egypt so they can smuggle in weapons, including rockets and explosives supplied by Iran. The ABC falls for Hamas propaganda so readily.
Then there’s the introduction by stand-in host Scott Bevan:
SCOTT BEVAN, PRESENTER: Welcome to the program. I’m Scott Bevan. Well, once again the Middle East is at flash point with Israeli jets pounding Gaza for the third consecutive day. More than 300 people have reportedly been killed including civilians and children.
Bevan fails to point out that Hamas (as well as most of the other Islamic terrorist groups in the region) deliberately operate in civilian areas like apartment blocks so that when Israel strikes, there are inevitable civilian casualties.
Bevan’s introduction should have said, “More than 300 people have reportedly been killed, most of them Hamas operatives.”
By highlighting civilian and especially child victims, the ABC has again fallen for Hamas propaganda aims.
Then there was this comment by reporter Anne Barker on the 7pm TV news last night:
Middle East experts question Israel’s approach.
She then provides just one “expert”. Since when does one expert equate to “experts”? The ABC has been caught out doing this before. It is a breach of their own editorial rule book, the news and current affairs style guide.
Over at ABC Radio the current affairs team was also up to its old tricks. The headline on the internet version of the “AM” report from yesterday declared that there was “International condemnation at Israel’s air strikes” and yet the actual “AM” item reported that, at best, there had been “calls for a ceasefire” or “calls to halt” the air strikes.
The only condemnation in the report came from the Palestinian representative, yet this was enough to generate an “international condemnation” headline.
Meanwhile, Palestinian supporters took to the streets in Sydney.
According to the ABC:
A Sydney protest against Israeli rocket strikes in the Gaza strip has heard that Hamas should reject politics and embrace conflict. Police estimate about 250 people attended the rally at a park near Lakemba train station, in Sydney’s south-west.
The crowd was led in chants, denouncing the strikes. Some carried placards accusing Israeli ministers of having blood on their hands. The rally remained peaceful.
A speaker from the Hizb Ut Tahrir group that organised the rally, Wassim Doureihi told the crowd it was time for Hamas to reject negotiation and “return to the battle field”. “We say to you very sincerely, oh dear brothers and sisters of Hamas, the only recourse for you is to abandon comprehensively all political negotiations,” the speaker said.
I suppose we should be grateful that “the rally remained peaceful.”
