A few days ago, I wrote about Panorama - the flagship news programme of the BBC, which reported last week on the sinister fundraising activities of the Islamic charity Interpal.
The message of my original posting on the Panorama expose' was lost amidst the incendiary blog debate that followed. Quite simply, I stated that although the BBC has a reputation (among Jews) as an anti-Israeli media outlet (not without some justification), it has attracted opprobium from others for being too kind to Israel. Don't take my word for it. Bermants Blog has also commented on this, and has drawn my attention to the Panorama feedback .
Here's one example from the feedback: I have always thought that the BBC is a reliable source of news and reflect the situation where ever as it is, last night it was very disappointing, panorama was very baised to the Israeli side of the story, and did not even get close to the facts.
I find it tiresome to hear Foreign Ministry officials moaning continuously about BBC hatred of Israel (Gideon Meir is the worst offender) - see the Jerusalem Post. It might sound like a cliche but there is some truth in it - "Media Bias is in the Eye of the Beholder".
I believe that it would be counterproductive for Israel to start another anti-BBC campaign, as it probably won't make an ounce of difference to the Corporation's coverage - and as I have already pointed out, there are plenty of people out there who feel the Beeb is soft on Israel.
I will give Shankar Vedantam the last word. In an eye-opening article in the Seattle Times, the journalist described how Pro-Arab and Pro-Israeli audiences were shown the same news clips of Israeli troops in Lebanon in 1982, and how the audience reactions diverged:
Partisans, it turns out, don't just arrive at different conclusions; they see entirely different worlds. In one especially telling experiment, researchers showed 144 observers six television news segments about Israel's 1982 war with Lebanon. Pro-Arab viewers heard 42 references that painted Israel in a positive light and 26 references that painted Israel unfavorably.
Pro-Israeli viewers, who watched the very same clips, spotted 16 references that painted Israel positively and 57 references that painted Israel negatively.
Both groups were certain they were right and the other side didn't know what it was talking about. The tendency to see bias in the news, now the raison d'etre of much of the blogosphere is such a reliable indicator of partisan thinking that researchers coined a term, "hostile media effect," to describe the sincere belief among partisans that news reports are painting them in the worst possible light.
