Media Watch
In the meantime, we now have that disgraceful piece put together by the ABC, in cahoots with Paul Barry, aired last Monday night (09/10) on ‘Media Watch’ regarding Jewish complaints of bias in reporting of the Israel/Palestinian conflict GOING BACK YEARS.
Accusations are made of’intimidation’ by Jews of journalists who ‘only want to report what they see in front of them’ (so says John Lyons of The Australian). Well, John, you do need to understand what you see in front of you by reading a bit of history and absorbing the current local complexities, before you can report it in context.
Michael Danby is referred to as ‘a serial complainant’. The Israel Lobby is referred to, apparently an okay reference to make, when in fact it replaces ‘the Jewish lobby’ as a term with all that infers. John Lyons of The Australian and Ruth Pollard, ex-correspondent for The Age in the Middle East (the latter a terribly biased reporter to the point of unprofessionalism, as time and time again she presented melodramatic stories as heart-grabbers for the Palestinians, completely lacking fuller context), were cited as both having won Walkeley Awards for Journalism, as if that meant they could do no wrong, so we could assume the complaints against them unjustified. The AIJAC was mentioned as one of the ‘complaining’ bodies, and Executive Director, Colin Rubenstein, when asked for comment, responded with admirable, succinct and pertinent reply.
The ‘Media Watch’ brief is to investigate media reporting and report on inaccuracies or sensationalism. So, what is it doing mounting this kind of obvious defence for the ABC and dragging other media into it to mount a big case against Jewish complaint, which is made to look insidious? That in a liberal democratic society, representatives of the minority group that is the Jews cannot actively complain of wrong-doing and bias from their own perspective without this type of reaction says a lot. Nothing much has changed.
What a state of affairs, when for so long now the relentless propaganda campaign internationally by the Palestinians to deny Israel’s legitimacy and carve a place in the world for themselves as a sovereign state, without regard to Israel, has been so successful. Israel and Jews of the Diaspora have taken far too long to fight the rhetoric and present the facts. Now that we’re doing so, we’re not only not being listened to, but being branded with old style antisemitic responses in the guise of new terms to deal with it.
Honest reporting matters enormously and now we have ‘Media Watch’ practising corruption of its own brief because an ABC journalist is involved in distorting the truth by her bias. Shame on all of them. I have submitted a post complaining of this to the Media Watch website and am waiting to see if it’s included unedited, or indeed at all. I urge anyone else who feels the same way to do so.
Liat Kirby
Inala QLD
I couldn’t agree more, Liat!
Here we now have the ABC’s Media Watch watching the ABC’s Media Watch
watch the ABC’s Media Watch. And all about Israel.
I was appalled watching it.
So unprofessional. So hypocritical. So one-eyed
And misrepresented. And so undemocratic. Such poor journalism.
Either the producers are just plain unintelligent jerks
Or they are plain antisemitic. Of course there are all shades
In between including dramatists, ignoramuses and puppets.
Whatever the case Media Watch has sunk to an all time low
In terms of credibility. They are supposed to be an authentic Watch-dog.
Instead, this segment showed the depths to which they will sink
To prostitute themselves into a position of powerlessness.
The program is a sad indictment on the rules of playing to
The rules and presenting the facts “as we see them happen”.
When it comes to Israel, the self appointed advocates of what’s right and wrong, think it’s their duty to substantiate their in ground belief that Israel has no right to exist. And if accused of bias against Israel, they say they’re just doing their job, and complaints from the all-powerful Jewish lobby asking for some balance, to them, amounts to censorship.