Sophie McNeill’s bias
Once again ABC Jerusalem correspondent Sophie McNeill has proven to be inconsistent and ignorant in her reporting and handling of news coming out of Israel.
Michael Danby
Ms McNeill was passionate in her twitter, play-by-play commentary, of the eviction of the Palestinian Shamesneh family from the East Jerusalem house they had been living in for 50 years.
Her emotional plea failed to mention that the Shamesneh’s were squatters in a house that had been vacated during mass evictions, under the Jordanian occupation of East Jerusalem prior to the Six Day War of 1967.
But what of her treatment some days earlier of the tragedy of the Israeli Salomon family who were stabbed to death in their home at their Shabbat dinner table?
By contrast with her sympathy for Palestinian family Ms McNeil made only passing reference to the Salomons, without mentioning them by name, as settlers in “occupied territories”
Sadly, the death of the three Salomon family members who were gathered around the Shabbat dinner table to celebrate the birth of grandson Yosef, the newest member of the family, is seemingly not news worthy to Ms McNeill. But the Palestinian family, who had to shift are worth a segment on “7.30”
This is an example of the style of Ms McNeill’s reporting. Like her hero John Pilger she dehumanises the side she does not favour by failing to report crucial information about them. She always elevates the Palestinian narrative. This consistent pattern of bias is hard to identify by her editors or ABC views who may not be aware of on the ground events in relation to each other.
Michael Danby should be supported and thanked for his selfless and tireless work
on behalf of his constituency, the Australian Jewish community, and to the greater Australian public.
He has brought into sharp focus issues which otherwise may have bee shunted to the sidelines because they were too difficult to tackle.
Danby has never been one to slink from a righteous confrontation.
Bob Carr is a typical case .This ex Premier of NSW who turned 180 degrees from instigating Labor Friends of Israel, to now attempting to destroy Israel’s standing–and come very close to outright antisemitism in the process–has to my view been afraid to come outright and challenge Danby one on one!
Danby has repeatedly called him out, and every time Carr has refused–the best he can do is snipe from the sidelines.
We all have much to be thankful for in the efforts of Michael Danby.
John
The bulk of the Labor Party has manufactured a clone of a political weapon whose effectiveness has been proven :
.take a complex issue and dumb it down to a simple misleading message.
.use it as a target and focus of vilification, drawing on dormant animosities against a minority group.
.that vilification unifies disparate elements within the party
.it also distracts the voters from the party’s policy bankruptcy
Bingo, an election-winning formula!
Michael Danby is a big boy!
And he does not shake in his boots when the likes of Carr snipes at him from the sidelines.
We are still waiting for “greatest Australian Foreign Minister”–not–to gather the kahunas to meet Danby one to one for debate–as Danby has been continually calling for.
Well done Michael….and a huge thank you!
My apology for the “typo” with Mr. Danby’s name.
Forgive me please Mr. Danby
I take issue with the opening remarks of Mr. Danny’s article.
Sophie McNeil is neither “inconsistent nor ignorant” in her reports from Israel.
She is both focussed and deliberate in her reports.
She has a mission to demonise Israel and support the “Palestinian” cause, regardless of the facts.
Whether that is a personal mission, or one by directive from her employer would be difficult to determine.
But, Mr Danny, she is consistent. She is also keenly aware of what she is doing.
Understand that and reading her contributions can be taken with a reasonable dose of salt!!
Fairfax media (SMH, CT, AGE) has a story online today about this matter and Bill Shorten is not impressed.
Danby may be out before the next election as I have previously predicted.
Danby has rock solid support and admiration from the 20% of Ports which he so strongly represented on this issue.
And his support is widespread,…. just not amongst the antisemites, watermelons and Stalinist lemmings.
Where is the professionalism? Nowhere !
Where is the accountability? Credibility?
Authenticity? Factuality?
What is ACMA doing about the mis-truths, half-truths
Omissions and outright lies of this woman and others
Like her? And her so called colleagues – where are they?
She is a disgrace
To her profession and her employer.
Her employer we ask? Say no more.
ACMA – you are NOT doing your job!
The ABC needs to be hung, drawn and quartered!
The Arab war against Israel and the Jews has on its side and at its disposal a great many more Western media organisations such as the ABC than does Israel.
Mr Danby is to be congratulated on his attempts to correct this imbalance by speaking out in parliament about the kinds of abuses that are practised by the ABC and others.
It’s interesting that in Australia no pro-Arab Palestinian advocate is accused of dual loyalties, but Jewish ones often are. A case in point was the epithet that was aimed at Mr Danby a few years ago by Labor Party members of parliament, who referred to him as “the Member for Likud [ the ruling Israeli party.]Actually that epithet insinuates not dual loyalties, but loyalty only to the Israeli government.
This conduct is quite consistent with that of a former Labor foreign minister, who deplores Jewish lobbying on behalf of Israel, but is himself a prominent member of a very energetic anti-Israel lobby.
The Labor Party has actually honed quite a sharp and well- tested political weapon: it has fixated on an issue on which it can unify the disparate elements within the party; its message on that complex issue is simple and easily understood by members of all educational backgrounds; it brings to the surface dormant atavistic animosities as amplifiers of the hostility engendered by the simple message; and it distracts voters from the Labor Party’s policy bankruptcy in areas that are genuinely important for Australia.