Sharansky slams BBC report on boy bomber

[Gimel]

The BBC employs a "gross double standard to the Jewish state" that smacks of anti-Semitism, Minister-without-Portfolio Natan Sharansky charged in a letter he sent to the British news service Tuesday morning. He was reacting to its coverage of the IDF's arrest of a 16-year-old would-be suicide bomber last week.

In comparison to other international news organizations, which focused on the use of children by Palestinian terrorist groups, the BBC portrayed the event as "Israel's cynical manipulation of a Palestinian youngster for propaganda purposes," he wrote.

Sharansky said such an approach "reveals a deep-seated bias against Israel. Only a total identification with the goals and methods of the Palestinian terror groups would drive a reporter to paint Israel in such an unflattering light instead of placing the focus on the bomber and the organization that recruited him."

The report, he said, "has not only set a new standard for biased journalism, it has also raised concerns that it was tainted by anti-Semitism."
Sharansky questioned whether the BBC had ever run stories about Palestinian use of children for propaganda purposes or the media spin utilized by Palestinian leaders, actions which are "not a matter of dispute to any serious journalist."

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[JohnLocke]

5. BBC's alright; It's Al-Jazzera that bad.

[Violet_Crumble]

8. What's wrong with Al-Jazeera?

It's an Arab media source. So what?

Violet...

[legin]

2. When was the last time that the BBC

fired a missle from a helicopter at a guy in a wheelchair ?

[JohnLocke]

6. Wow! That's a new pinnacle of irrelevance!

[legin]

7. Not really

I rather resent being lectured on morality by some sleazebag like Sharansky, seeing how the BBC are our national television network and who are actually doing their job properly.

[tinnypriv]

4. Well, since the full letter is not available

It is difficult to comment.

But since I saw the BBC reports, and they sound nothing like how Sharansky describes, this sounds like another "the world is against us" whine.

As he well knows, the "cynical manipulation of a Palestinian youngster for propaganda purposes" was actually a prominent article in the center-right Israeli press, and numerous international journalists (not just the BBC) investigated the IDF's claims about the boy's age, which turned out to be totally false (and contradictory).

In addition, the use of the boy for hasbara has been noted in passing (because it is so obvious) by several (hawkish) commentators, and Israeli TV programmes and chat sites are actually full of comments like "show the world", and "call CNN" etc.

None of this has no bearing on the actual event, merely the exploitation of it after the fact. When you're consumed by paranoia, I guess you forget that distinction.