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CBC has whitewashed Israel's crimes in Gaza. I saw it firsthand

Schumann, Molly
http://breachmedia.ca/cbc-whitewashed-israels-crimes-gaza-firsthand/

Date Written:  16/05/2024
Year Published:  2024  
Resource Type:  Article

Working for five years as a producer at the public broadcaster, I witnessed the double standards and discrimination in its coverage of Palestine -- and experienced directly how CBC disciplines those who speak out

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Even before Oct. 2023, trying to persuade senior CBC colleagues to report accurately on Palestinians was a struggle. Here are some of the TV interview ideas that a colleague and I pitched but had turned down: Human Rights Watch's 2021 report designating Israel an apartheid state; the Sheikh Jarrah evictions in the same year; Israel assassinating Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022; and the Israeli bombing of the Jenin refugee camp in July 2023.

The last of these ideas was initially greenlit but was later cancelled because a senior producer was concerned that the host would have too much on her plate. Around this time, I also pitched someone from the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem to talk about the potential impact of widely-protested judicial reforms on Palestinians -- but this was nixed for fear of complaints. These would become familiar excuses.

After October 7, I dreaded going into work: every shift, the impact of the biases went into overdrive. Even at this early stage, Israeli officials were making genocidal statements that were ignored in our coverage. On October 9, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said, "I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel; everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly." Even after this comment, my executive producer was still quibbling over uses in our scripts of the word "besieged" or references to the "plight of Palestinians."

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