Peter Cunningham writes: “The following article on BBC online “US abortion rights in the balance?” ends with the sentence “And for many women with unwanted pregnancies in that southern state, little would change.” It is interesting that the author choose not to use the equivalent, “And for many unborn babies in California, little would change – they would continue to be killed.”
Ritter pointed out this Newswatch article on the higher coverage of the white-on-black murder of Anthony Walker compared to the coverage of the black-on-white murder of Richard Whelan, the asian-on-white murder of Christopher Yates, or various other killings. Ritter writes, “I agree with the editors laying out of the facts in terms of how these horrific murders are covered by the BBC. I don’t agree with his conclusion though. One horrific murder is not much more newsworthy than another simply because it is classed as ‘racist’. But at the BBC, this fact is all important.”
Another correspondent pointed out this story: Gaza gang seizes lion in zoo raid. She writes, “This is an item about how a “mafia-style gang” may be holding a lion-cub and two ‘Arabic-speaking parrots’ – fine as far as it goes. She adds:
But please note the following:
“The BBC’s Alan Johnston in Gaza says human abductions in the Gaza Strip usually end with the victim being freed quite quickly and unharmed”.
There is something soooooooo nauseatingly mild and reassuring about this. It’s saying, well there are kidnappings, but absolutely no need to condemn or worry about them because, don’t you see, nothing happens to the victim, it’s quite lot of fun really for them, takes them out of their boring routine.
Where is the condemnation of such a horrible crime against humans, and awful for animals too?
There have been a number of kidnappings in Gaza, which is in a state of chaos and lawlessness since the israeli withdrawal. Often the kidnap victims are foreign aid workers and journalists. I just wonder if Alan Johnston and the BBC are worried he could become such a victim if he doesn’t say the right things on the BBC website to appease potential kidnappers.
So we are forced to pay for such appeasement through our licence fee.
As usual, could correspondents note that I will quote their names if and as they appear in the text of the email, or, if taken from a comment, using the form of their names that they have filled in the comments box. Let me know if your name has been quoted when you would prefer it was not, or omitted when you would prefer to have it quoted. Do not rely on my memory!