Guess That Victim!

Monkey Tennis Centre discovers a curious choice by the BBC: Reporting on a vicious terrorist attack using a heavy bulldozer to kill three and wound dozens, the BBC avoids mentioning the deaths at all until the third paragraph, and studiously refuses to give any details about them until very deep into the article. After, of course, suggesting the terrorist was driven to this act of multiple murder by Israelis.

The BBC has now updated the article to change this-- and bury the details of the victims even deeper into the article.

Meanwhile, of course, details are always provided front and center regarding Palestinians killed by Israel anti-terrorist strikes; it's the details that humanize the victim, of course, and make him more than digital cipher. No Palestinian dies or is even injured without poignant details of his family, his hopes, his dreams; but Jews are different, basically the nameless mooks in an action movie, and no one should pay much heed to them as the Palestinian Action Heroes cut them down in bloody swaths.

This is of course completely deliberate.

For the BBC, "Never again" is a trite and politically incorrect motto. They prefer the more nuanced, modern version of it: "How about next Thursday?"

posted by Ace at 04:37 PM

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