08 October 2017

The ABC's Sophie McNeill’s Bias

From The Hon. Michael Danby, Member ofr Melbourne Ports, 18 Sept 2017:


Once again ABC Jerusalem correspondent Sophie McNeill has proven to be inconsistent and ignorant in her reporting and handling of news coming out of Israel.


Ms McNeill was passionate in her twitter, play-by-play commentary, of the eviction of the Palestinian Shamesneh family from the East Jerusalem house they had been living in for 50 years. Her emotional plea failed to mention that the Shamesneh’s were squatters in a house that had been vacated during mass evictions, under the Jordanian occupation of East Jerusalem prior to the Six Day War of 1967.

But what of her treatment some days earlier of the tragedy of the Israeli Salomon family who were stabbed to death in their home at their Shabbat dinner table? By contrast with her sympathy for Palestinian family Ms McNeil made only passing reference to the Salomons, without mentioning them by name, as settlers in “occupied territories” Sadly, the death of the three Salomon family members who were gathered around the Shabbat dinner table to celebrate the birth of grandson Yosef, the newest member of the family, is seemingly not news worthy to Ms McNeill. But the Palestinian family, who had to shift are worth a segment on “7.30”

This is an example of the style of Ms McNeill’s reporting. Like her hero John Pilger she dehumanises the side she does not favour by failing to report crucial information about them. She always elevates the Palestinian narrative. This consistent pattern of bias is hard to identify by her editors or ABC views who may not be aware of on the ground events in relation to each other.

No comments:

Post a Comment