Everything changed when Widow passed.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce814ez7030o

This is what it looks like when journalists formally abdicate their responsibility to journalistic ethics in favor of their crusade. They'll go out of their way to post an article just to refuse to take accountability for publishing false information and propaganda. The BBC hides behind the excuse that they don't have direct access to Gaza to confirm accounts themselves, but rather than accept the reality of what they cannot and do not know, they chose to republish false accounts from obviously biased sources before the facts are in. And then when it turns out its false, they just say its a naturally evolving story and that getting facts completely wrong is somehow part of the normal process of reporting news.

Its the total rejection of the concept of responsible journalism. They know they got a story wrong, they know they reported details they both couldn't confirm and had every reason to suspect were bogus, and they say "We stand by our journalism" and call it "totally normal practice on any fast-moving news story"

I spend more time on PARD correcting my mistaken reports than the BBC does as actual journalists. Hell I get details wrong since I try to get evolving stories right as they pop up sometimes, I posted yesterday about how the King of the Hill actor's death was being reported as a homophobic hate crime by his husband, now it sounds more like that's actually his wife and the shooting was a lot murkier, possibly even self-defense given his insane history, I don't know the details. I got it wrong, happens, and its my bad. Not exactly poisoning the public discourse on PARD like the BBC is by publishing blood libel to millions of readers.

There are no sanctions for posting BS

So why are they not allowed in? If Israel is not committing any war crimes wouldn't it be better to allow journalists in so they can report the actual truth? Or is the truth worse than whatever they can possibly come up with themselves?

Israel has both legitimate reasons and propaganda reasons. They don't want western journalists being in the line of fire or taken hostages, and sources that western news outlets have used in Gaza have overlapped with Hamas, being complicit in October 7th or getting involved in fights on the ground or spying on troop movements or so on. And of course, Israel recognizes that this war is being fought at a PR level and Hamas has put tons of effort into courting international opinions and spreading disinformation backed by western media. That's just a recognition of the reality of war today, as cynical as it may be. When Hamas launches a missile that falls on top of Palestinians and immediately spreads a story through the BBC & co about how Israel is bombing innocent Palestinians and blowing up hospitals, Israel is more threatened by the Hamas media offensive than the Hamas missile offensive.

And of course, Israel does allow foreign journalists into Gaza, as long as they are embedded with the IDF and not free to move around. They aren't able to interview Palestinians freely and get the Hamas side of each story.

the whole situation of course isn't some clean playground for journalists to tromp around. Journalists have long been allowed into active war zones while embedded with their allied forces, without being free to go get themselves killed by the Viet Cong. I mean, unless they felt suicidal. And all of Gaza is a war zone, and no Israelis or foreign nationals are allowed into Gaza in general, only excepting strictly controlled aid mission contractors as we see right now.

one point i got a laugh at was the "israel wont let them interview hamas" portion. i read someone criticize this as an anti-Israel thing. as if Hamas lacks outlets to get their perspective heard. they are so embedded into many publications that most outlets uncritically print their reports as fact in real time and only retract quietly if proven dead wrong somewhere on page 10. hell most of the major sites like "casualties" that are just hamas generated numbers, and we're lucky if they also put israeli numbers too.

Piers Morgan finally came around



This post was edited by ferdia on Jun 4 2025 04:16pm

and a relatively moderate post from Owen James



the fact that the conversations are now going this way highlights that western governments are getting really pissed off with Israel right now.

Not only do they have to fear that the journalists would only talk to highly biased sources, they also have to fear that the journalists themselves are highly biased. Across the Western world, the overwhelming majority of MSM journalists leans wildly to the left these days. More so than ever before. Since Israel/Gaza has increasingly turned into a left/right issue, Israel has to assume that these journalists would already enter Gaza with a strong inclination to believe the Hamas narratives because those narratives fit in neatly with their preconceived worldview.

That BBC article and the way they're doubling down on their reporting practices is imho a symptom of this underlying cause. BBC journalists have become increasingly activist-y and willing to let their personal biases seep into their articles, not just on Gaza but on pretty much any hot button issue of the past decade.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Jun 4 2025 07:35pm