April 23, 2004

SEMINARS IGNORED

Zem writes: "There's a curious turn of phrase in this BBC piece on Spielberg's plan to make a film about the '72 Olympic assassinations. It seems the Israeli athletes were kidnapped by activists, not terrorists; and their deaths, while chronologically subsequent to the abduction, were of unspecified causes":

The Israelis died after being taken hostage by Palestinian activists at the 1972 summer games in Munich.

The item also mentions “murder” and “killings”, but not in the same paragraph as the only mention of the actual murderers. Perhaps the BBC needs to get some new instructors at its impartiality seminars:

BBC reporters are receiving training in impartial journalism following criticisms made by the Hutton Report into the death of Dr David Kelly.

The 'impartiality seminars' aim to encourage reporters and producers at BBC News to think outside of the 'left-leaning liberal' mentality traditionally associated with the corporation.

Posted by Tim Blair at April 23, 2004 01:14 AM
Comments

Impartiality seminars? Yeah, that'll work...

Posted by: Roger Bournival at April 23, 2004 at 01:23 AM

Could ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, NYT, WaPO, LAT, and Al-Jeers audit the course?

Posted by: c at April 23, 2004 at 04:13 AM

Unclear how the hostages died? When the terrorists realized they were being ambushed at the airport, they threw grenades into the getaway choppers which were loaded with Israelis. What is unclear about that?

Posted by: Moonbat_One at April 23, 2004 at 09:02 AM

How can impartiality 'seminars' undo the damage caused by years in the Portland Place Re-education Camp? BBC journos could be used as test-beds for the re-integration of North Koreans.

Posted by: fidens at April 23, 2004 at 09:54 AM

The BBC is rewriting history.

Googling '1972 Olympic terrorists' brings up plenty of information about the the Munich tragedy.

Googling '1972 Olympic activists' brings up Waldi the Dachshund.

Posted by: ilibcc at April 23, 2004 at 12:07 PM

The first line of the article is:

Director Steven Spielberg is to make a film about the kidnap and murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics

It can't be much clearer can it? Come on you are better than this.

Posted by: Tom. at April 23, 2004 at 10:02 PM

It might be a little clearer if they could tell us that the murderers were arab terrorists, as they would have done if the kidnappers were Americans or Israelis. It would be even clearer if they mentioned that the cause they were fighting for was a fraudulent nationality invented as an instrument of islamic imperialism, and clearer still if they pointed out that this was a far from isolated example of islamic tolerance and decency.

Posted by: Clem Snide at April 23, 2004 at 10:22 PM

"The Israelis died after being taken hostage by Palestinian activists at the 1972 summer games in Munich."

Did they all have a massive heart attack?

Posted by: Joel at April 24, 2004 at 12:15 AM