[Media-watch] Your interview with Hoon

[Darren Smith]

Dear Jim,

Did I hear you correctly. Did someone mention a 10,000 (or was is
100,000) Iraqi militia in Basra? Who are these people? Where have they
suddenly come from? 

Why did you not suggest to Hoon that maybe civilians are now starting to
resist British troops? Why not suggest that the story of a Basra
uprising coming under motor fire from Iraqis is a UK Government lie in
order to explain the large number of civilian casualties that British
artillery fire onto Basra is very likely to cause (yes, of course we
don't target civilians, but that's not the point - call it accidental if
you like)?

Also, every time a BBC correspondent reports from Iraqi it's prefaced
with "his movements are being monitored," but when a report comes from
an "embedded" journalist, there's no such warning. This has the effect
of saying to the listener, you can't fully trust the former, but you can
the latter. The reverse is probably true - these embedded journalists do
a very good job of disguising military briefings as "news."

Finally, I think you are guilty this morning of effectively deceiving
your listeners (I ascribe no nefarious motive). You referred to
"reports" from Basra r.e. an uprising. But there are no BBC "reports" in
the conventional sense of that phrase. These "reports" are information
being handed out by senior military officers. In fact the only "reports"
come from Al Jazeera, which weren't seriously examined, but presented to
Hoon for, predictably, his instant side-step. And note what he said,
that the Basra uprising was only "probably" true. I feel there is some
serious lying going on here, and Today is not exposing it.

Regards,

Darren Smith



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