November 24, 2003
There has been a lot of criticism lately about some of the mainstream media’s anti-Israel bias. In particular, accusations have been made against the CBC and the BBC, both public broadcasters. But some of the worst offenders are not the networks, but the news wire services.
As pointed out by Honestreporting.com, both Reuters and the Associated Press (AP) published lists in early November of previous terrorist attacks. Reuters listed 18 terrorist attacks that occurred in various parts of the world since September 11, 2002. The AP list included 15 attacks, being with the attacks on U.S. Embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi in August, 1998. The list ranged from small attacks in which three missionaries were killed in Yemen on December 30, 2002 to the attacks upon the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
What was noticeably missing from both AP’s and Reuter’s lists was any mention of Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians. In accordance with their long standing policies, the blowing up of Israeli babies in restaurants by Palestinian suicide bombers does not qualify as terrorism. To these news organizations, members of Islamic Jihad and Hamas are not really terrorists--at worst they are militants and at best they are freedom fighters. The worst part is that articles by Associated Press and Reuters find there way into newspapers that themselves may not hold the biases that the news services do.
CBC hires PR firm
Both the CBC and the BBC have come under attack recently for having pronounced left wing biases. The BBC has taken steps to inquire into allegations of bias but not the CBC. The CBC’s solution to criticisms that were made against the corporation was to hire the public relations firm of Edelman Worldwide. Edelman was hired to help the people’s network with several problems including criticism about how the news is presented.
CBC, under the anti-American Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, sees itself as defending Canadians against a cultural invasion from the Great Satan. That being said, it isn’t surprising that the network turned to the New York City based PR firm. Much like the staunch defenders of Canada’s health system who run to Boston or the Mayo Clinic whenever they get a headache, the CBC sees nothing inconsistent between its Canadian mission and hiring Americans when it’s in their interest to do so.
The hiring of Edelman does seem appropriate--the firm has experience in handling disasters. Edleman worked for Exxon after the Valdez spill in the late 80s and was also retained by the City of New York after the terrorist attacks in 2001. And the CBC certainly qualifies as a disaster.
The Reagans--more follow up
As previously reported, CBS cancelled its November airing of the four hour miniseries based on the life of former president, Ronald Reagan after criticism was mounted against the inaccuracies in the production. One of the most objectionable scenes in the show was the one that portrayed Reagan, played by James Brolin, aka Mr. Barbra Streisand, as a homophobe. The miniseries has Reagan saying, "those who live in sin, shall die in sin" when describing the former president’s views of people who have AIDS. There was never any evidence that Reagan felt this way and CBS admitted that the quote was fiction.
After the series was cancelled, one of the biggest complainers was Streisand. She objected bitterly on her website and made the usual freedom of speech arguments.
As reported by Newsmax.com, the National Enquirer had reported that Streisand’s son, Jason Gould, 36, is dying of AIDS. And that Streisand blames Ronald Reagan. The mainstream media has used the National Enquirer as a source when reporting on other celebs such as Bill Clinton and O.J. Simpson but none of the major American news outlets picked up the story of Streisand’s son.
Streisand’s desire for Ronald Reagan to be portrayed in a negative light is not just political--it’s personal. Something that the mainstream media don’t want you to know.