91Èȱ¬ in the news, Friday
| 09:08 UK time, Friday, 4 August 2006
Daily Mail: Richard Littlejohn on Middle East coverage - "I use a rough rule of thumb whenever I watch TV coverage of the Middle East. Anyone who pronounces Hezbollah as 'Hiz-bull-arrrgh' and Israeli as 'Izza-ra-ay-lee' is almost certainly telling lies." ()
The Sun: Columnist Fergus Shanahan attacks the 91Èȱ¬'s Middle East coverage for "turning war into showbiz". (no link available)
Comments
It would be more interesting to see what blogs are saying about the 91Èȱ¬ rather than Littlejohn in the Daily Mail.
Such "names" rarely tell us anything original and can be easily found online, but if you point out other, less well known voices, then that would be interesting.
These "names" do seem to have a point though. It is a fine line between trying to be well informed with world events and being sucked into viewing them as no more than a soap opera. Broadcasters walk a dangerous line between entertainment and journalism.
Interesting point about the 91Èȱ¬ turning the current Middle East conflict into "showbiz". I not sure abbut the analogy but they have reverted to the clichés we associate with sporting events. Witness the claim made by a reporter on 91Èȱ¬ Breakfast yesterday morning that a "record number" of missiles had fallen.
I wonder how Hezbollah are performing today? Has the record been broken again?
So, I agree with both newspapers. With one reservation for the second quote: The 91Èȱ¬ is not alone doing it. All the main Western 24h news networks do the very same thing. I would say that most of the time, the 91Èȱ¬ does try to do some even-handed showbiz", and that's more than I can say for CNN.
I have a similar rule of thumb. Any quote coming from a quote in the Daily Mail or the Sun is almost certainly either lies or ridiculously exaggerated.
what i would agree with what 91Èȱ¬ is doing is becoming biased by overequalising the casualties/destruction etc on both lebanese and israeli sides.
91Èȱ¬ does NOT have to put the same number of lines covering the horrors on both sides, because, with all my respect to all people affected, the destruction on the lebanese side is much higher, casualties, infrastructure, threats are 100x higher, and the whole lebanon is victim to an unjustifiable invasion. where has the sense of justice gone??