Senator Michael Ronaldson's concerns about the lack of partiality in Australia's multicultural TV network SBS of Hizbullah's war on Israel are to be raised at next week's Senate estimates hearing in Parliament.
This has provided Sonja Karkar of Australians for Palestine with some concerns of her own. Her 475 word letter is generously given prominence in today's Melbourne Age under the banner What don't they want us to know about Israel?
Ms. Karkar uses that generous allotment of space to tell us exactly what SBS has been telling us about Israel and Lebanon and Israel and the Palestinians without enumerating the multitude of things that it hasn't been revealing to its viewers.
Indeed, SBS operates its reporting on the Middle East in much the same way as does the Age. That is, it tends to shun many of the facets of these ongoing conflicts where the news is not so favourable to the Arab side. And when SBS and the Age aren't hiding certain important aspects of the news from the region they're often putting their own biased slant on them. That's exactly what Sen. Richardson is saying.
Ask yourself for example, when was the last time you saw an item on SBS or read in the Age about the incitement to hatred within PA television controlled by President Mahmoud Abbas who much of the media seek to paint as a "moderate" among Palestinian leaders? Do you recall them ever telling us in any detail about the genocidal, anti-Semitic contents of the Hamas Charter or the racist rantings of Hizbullah's Hassan Nasrallah?
Senator Ronaldson is seeking to address bias on SBS and for both sides of the argument to be heard.
Sonja Karkar's letter is a plea for the existing bias to be endorsed and to become an intinsic part of SBS editorial policy. This goes against this taxpayer funded organisation's charter and should not be permitted under any circumstances.
FOOTNOTE: Good luck to you if you want to send a response to Karkar's letter to the Age. This is what you have to do and please note what the Age says about the ideal size of your letter.
Send your letters to: letters@theage.com.au Fax: +61 (0)3 96012414Snailmail: 250 Spencer Street, Melbourne 3000 All letters and email (no attachments) to The Age must carry the sender's home address and day and evening phone numbers for verification. Letter writers who would like receipt of their letters acknowledged should send a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Ideally, letters will be a maximum of 200 words.
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9 comments:
Today's Letters are a this address:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/letters/what-dont-they-want-us-to-know-about-israel/2006/10/24/1161455719474.html
The address you used, gets recycled daily. You can find the 'permanent' address by clicking on the 'letters archive' link on the right-hand side.
It is interesting that the only time the letters Editor {A Jewish far Lefty} breaks his own rules about submitting letters of no more than 200 words is if the letter is an attack on Israel>
Another good example of when Mr Bernstein broke his own rules was the last time The Age published a piece from Colin Rubenstein{ very rare and only done so if they ever need to prove that a zionist gets published in the Age} the very next day Mr Bernstein published a letter nearly 500 words from a serial anti Zionist letter writer attacking Rubenstein...good cop/bad cop the Age style
The Age has all guns blazing they have Michael Gawenda another far lefty Jew sent to washington to stick the boots into the yanks sending daily negative reports from his about USA..{I’ve yet top read any positive story from Gawenda about USA}his job is only to send the dirt and send stories about USA that al jazeera would be proud of>
They have Oloughlin sending daily Prop Palestinian pro aRab reports from Jerusalem, they have Bernstein selectively publishing anti Israel letters 10 to 1 and sitting on op a Editor who wrote in his last job with the Scottish newspaper "'Israel deserved the suicide bomb attacks from Palestinians""
The SMH is a duplicate of The Age and the other Fairfax rag AFR have Tony Walker their Middle east reporter who sends in his weekly anti Israel anti USA reports..Walker a big fan of the late Arafat wrote two Biographies on the dead terrorist leader and has no sympathy for Israel and has been called an Arabist>
The sooner Murdoch gets his hands on Fairfax the better!
My problem with a 200 word limit is that sometimes you put in so much work keeping what you have to say down to 200 words that your ultimate product doesn't really read the way you wanted it to.
That's what really sh#ts me about the Age relaxing the rule for Israel bashers because you can bet your life that they won't provide the same space for the rebuttal (unless the Senator responds which I believe he should be doing in this instance because Karkar has so misinterpreted what he's trying to do that it's not funny).
Keeping to the 200 word limit has never been my problem.
Getting a letter printed that says "Ed O'Loughlin is a "#2%^" however, was.
My apologies to the last anonymous for , er making a slight adjustment to you message.
I've noticed that there's a definite problem with the Age letters section insofar as criticism of their journalists is concerned. Judging from my rejected letters, they're certaintly very protective of them.
And my letters are in my view reasonable, polite, never abusive and in particular (unlike some of the Israel bashing letter writers they publish) I never accuse Palestinians of being Nazis even if some of their leaders advocate genocide against the Jews.
Sonja Karkar is a vile woman cannot accept Israel as anything other than evil incarnate. She has a gift for sob-stories - have a read of this "Women for Palestine" editorial:
http://www.womenforpalestine.com/020403v2/assets/images/newsletters/pdfs/NewsLetterVol3Iss5.pdf
I am amazed how the Israel bashers are trying to misrepresent Ronaldson's intentions. Instread of embracing a situation where all sides of the debate can be heard on SBS they want only their side of the story to be told.
You won't see this story on SBS or read it in the Age:-
http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20061025-092622-2090r.htm
Get a load of the chutzpah of this moron from North Melbourne presumably from the Israel-bashing letter-writing society who obviously never takes a rest from the sport of Jew bashing even when a vegetable like Hillaly is involved. This was in the Australian:-
The sheik is correct that we are all made of meat. The funniest thing about his comment is that the Israeli-supporting letter-writing society has been able to take a holiday. They seem happy to let the Muslims dig their own grave.
Ben Host
North Melbourne, Vic
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