14 August 2006

On 7 August 2006, BBC Newsnight broadcast an item about the alleged doctoring of photographs by a Reuters photographer, in which Richard North, introduced simply as a "blogger", was interviewed.

Having claimed to be following this issue for several days, he was interviewed with Arab Media Watch chairman Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi on Newstalk 106FM a day later. Prior to the interview, AMW found North’s blog "EU Referendum", which revealed a deeply Islamophobic and Arabophobic agenda that colours his often dubious claims.

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com

For example, his blog links to one called "Islamophobic". At the top of the homepage is a banner saying "I support the IDF" (Israeli Defence Force) above a quote from Winston Churchill on Islam: "The influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world."

http://islamophobic.blogspot.com/

North also links to a website that claims Islam is "anything but a 'Religion of Peace'."

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Pages/AboutSite.htm

His blog also links to that of Melanie Phillips, without doubt one of the most Islamophobic, Arabophobic figures in the British media.

He rails against anyone and everyone in the media, including:

- The BBC (he describes the corporation as "jihadists of the air," displays the C as an Islamic crescent, and says it is "time to widen the anti-BBC front")

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/#115513188563918539

- Associated Press (calling Kathleen Carroll the "liar-in-chief")

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/#115528892110456590

- Reuters (to which he adds the Arabic prefix Al)

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/#115491072187059735

- Even the Daily Telegraph (which he calls the "Daily Hezbollagraph")

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/#115495203172904115

- He also calls AOL "Arabs On Line" for supposedly being anti-Israeli.

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/#115505006046282013

The list of examples goes on and on. Indeed, his rampant bias probably explains why the claims in his blog about the doctoring of photographs are replete with exaggerations and assumptions that he conjures up to conveniently fit his skewed view.

For example, on Newstalk North claimed that the aftermath of the Qana massacre was "wholly artificial", "faked" and "did not actually represent in any way the reality of what has happened." This claim itself, coming from someone who admitted that "I am not there, I am in England," is wholly artificial.

While the doctoring of photographs is wrong, "there is nothing staged about the fact that those children were dead, the buildings were bombed and Israel bombed them, so whether rescue workers purposefully held up babies for photographing, the fact is they were killed and the Israelis killed them," said Nashashibi on Newstalk.

"If they need to show the media that these children are being killed, then I guess from their point of view, so be it. The world needs to see the true horror of it to put a stop to it."

Incidentally the following two pictures, of smoke rising from Beirut, show that while there may have been doctoring, they are certainly not fake – the amount of smoke is exaggerated to a limited extent, but the original picture clearly shows a considerable amount of smoke rising from the city.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13536691,00.html

When the Newstalk presenter put it to North that Hezbollah would not be winning the propaganda war if Israel was not killing civilians, he replied that "this is not the issue." North also failed to reply directly when the presenter asked him twice if he would be as offended if the pictures showed Israeli deaths from Hezbollah rockets.

He merely said that "the Israeli side" has "respect for the dead and they do not parade them as trophies," while on the Lebanese side pictures "were staged to look horrific." When the presenter replied that "dead children is horrific," North said "this is not the point."

Regarding some of the claims he made in the Newstalk interview, when the presenter asked how he knew, he replied, yet again, that "this is not the issue." What was an issue, argued Nashashibi, was North's agenda. "If you look at his website, you will see he is not a spokesman for the truth. He is simply pedaling the same kind of propaganda that he is talking against."

When Nashashibi spoke to Newsnight producer Tim Whewell and pointed out North's obvious prejudices and agenda on his blog, Whewell expressed surprise at this information, which Nashashibi said was readily available on the homepage.

AMW's chairman told Whewell that Newsnight should have done its homework prior to the programme, to which he replied that this was "partly right", but he rejected Nashashibi's assertion that Newsnight should not have labeled North simply as a "blogger", which raised no alarms about his background and implied to viewers that he was neutral.

The Newsnight producer expressed no wrongdoing in interviewing North. When Nashashibi asked whether the BBC would interview an anti-Semite, Whewell said he did not agree that North was Islamophobic…despite the obvious evidence to the contrary.