(Israelis protest against deadly Palestinian attacks | The Times of Israel)
by Harvey Oberfeld
March 26, 2021
At SOME point, the CBC Board of Directors, the CRTC and/or the federal government MUST take on the Corbynesque anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian and even what I would call pro-Hamas bias at the CBC.
Readers of this Blog know I have in the past delineated my clear conclusions about bias in CBC “coverage” of: the Lebanon-Israel war; the Gaza-Israel conflict; the under-reporting … or total ignoring … of Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israelis; and the almost constant rocket/incendiary attacks on Israel from Hamas-controlled areas … still going on … 200 rockets in 2020 alone!
And then there was the most unusual treatment of US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who happens to be Jewish. The CBC must have a thousand photos/miles of video of Kushner, but as I pointed out, the CBC in a report on Kushner’s dealings between the US and Russia “used a deeply PERSONAL RELIGIOUS photo of Kushner … wearing a black Jewish skull cap, holding a Prayer Book, praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, standing next to another man, also wearing a black skullcap, and in prayer.”
“Think about that,” I wrote at the time.
“Has the Western Wall been moved to Moscow? Why was such a personal religious picture selected for use in a story about Kushner’s political dealings … when there were so many others, more closely relating to the subject matter?
Why THAT photo?
Even in the midst of the worst stories about Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin, Patrick Brazeau or Mac Harb … or any other political or work-related scandal stories on The CBC, I don’t recall EVER seeing a picture of THEM or ANYONE ELSE in personal prayer or in any religious context when other on-the-job pictures were available.”
That’s what had become of Canada’s once-venerable and impartial PUBLIC broadcaster.
But last week, the anti-Israel bias at the CBC went too far … literally!
The rest of the world had no problem reporting a fairly innocuous, simple story: more Dead Sea Scroll fragments, “among the earliest written Hebrew texts”, and a 6,000-year old child’s skeleton had been found in a cave in Israel, south of Jerusalem.
“New Dead Sea scrolls found in Israel” wrote the Canberra (Australia Times) ; “Ancient child’s skeleton found in Israel’s ‘Cave of Horrors’ along with Dead Sea scrolls” reported the South China Morning Post; “New fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls found in Israeli cave”, revealed Global News.
Even the CBC was on to the topic: “New Dead Sea scrolls found in desert cave in Israel,” the public broadcaster reported March 16.
But then a not-so-funny thing happened at the Corbynesque corp: the headline was then changed to “New Dead Sea scrolls found in cave in West Bank”.
West Bank?
The CBC MOVED the mountains and caves, somehow, to the Palestinian territories …. away from their actual location, a canyon around 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Jerusalem, in an area near Ein Gedi that has been part of Israel proper since 1948 … uncontested (except by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah)!!!
And the CBC?
How? Why” Who dunnit?
Thankfully, they didn’t get away with it: an Israel/Mid-East media-monitoring organization, HonestReporting Canada, noticed the change and filed a complaint March 18 with the CBC, pointing out the location of discovery is indeed INSIDE Israel, NOT in the Palestinian territories at all.
Oops! The CBC was caught … and issued the following statement:
” Corrections: A previous version of this story said the new fragments had been found in Israel but was later incorrectly updated to say they were found in the West Bank. In fact, they were found just west of the Dead Sea and south of the West Bank,” the People’s network admitted to its readers.
But did the CBC return the “Mountain” and the scrolls to Israel?
Of course not!
Their THIRD headline to the story NOW reads: “New Dead Sea Scrolls found in cave in Judean Desert.”
Still eliminating “Israel”.
This, in my view, is a PERFECT example of the anti-Israel bias that has corrupted and destroyed the credibility of the CBC for some time now.
It has long manifested itself in what the CBC covers, what the CBC does not cover and, as this pathetic example shows, how the CBC manipulates even simple straightforward stories.
Just imagine what goes on behind the scenes as they plan and produce their “coverage” of controversial, politically sensitive Mideast/Israel/Palestinian stories!!
It MUST be dealt with by the CBC Board, the CRTC or the Government!
Canadians deserve HONEST, FAIR, UNBIASED reporting … not propaganda twisted to conform to the prejudices of activists/extremists or some anti-Israel cabal that I believe has infested the news operations at the CBC.
Harv Oberfeld
