Those lily livered craven Daily Mail obsessed thick heads at the BBC have refused to show the Disaster Emergency Committee's Gaza appeal for some very bizarre reasons. They say the aid might not get through - whose fault is that, Israel?
They infer that the money we give might end up gong to Hamas. What? Don't they trust the DEC? These aren't a bunch of leftie students, you know, they are credible charities, ranging from TEARFund to Save the Children, to Help the Aged to Oxfam and the British Red Cross.
BBC Director General Mark Thomson came up with the unbelievable "Inevitably an appeal would use pictures which are the same or similar to those we would be using in our news programmes but would do so with the objective of encouraging public donations. The danger for the BBC is that this could be interpreted as taking a political stance on an ongoing story."
I don't think it's ever stopped them from doubting either the credibility or the efficacy of DEC before.
Here's hoping that the BBC's disgraceful stance does for this necessary humanitarian effort what Mike Read's equally bizarre decision to ban did for Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Relax - makes it one of the biggest successes.
Good for Tony Benn, too, for taking the BBC News Channel interviewer to task:
LibDig This!
There are two ironies of this Caron - firstly, that the Daily Mail actually supports the appeal, and secondly, that by refusing to show it the BBC has probably given the appeal more airtime that it woudl have got anyway!
ReplyDeleteHence my analogy to Relax.
ReplyDeleteDid you hear Mark Thompson on the Today programme? That's what defending the indefensible sounds like.
Find out more about British Red Cross work in Gaza at
ReplyDeletehttp://www.redcross.org.uk/TLC.asp?id=90152
or to donate to our appeal go to www.redcross.org.uk/gazacrisis