Op-Ed: BBC Feasts on Israel, Silent on Rapes in Rotherham
If only the BBC had taken its eyes off Israel for a moment...
Published: Tuesday, September 09, 2014 6:50 PM
The BBC has been so busy with Israel that it has had no time to protect its own daughters. This is the crux of journalistic malpractice.
Journalism’s main role is to keep us informed. When it departs from that duty, there is chaos. Rotherham, for example.
That’s where more than 1,400 English girls were repeatedly raped over a period of 16 years. The girls were mostly Christian and white. The rapists were mostly Pakistanis living in or around the same northern England town, population 250,000, and since these crimes were committed by Muslims, or “Asian men” – hence, your cover-up.
Polite Society can’t handle the truth.
I learned about all this not from The New York Times (of course not), but it was Rich Lowry in the New York Post who opened my eyes.
I share this one paragraph as follows:
“An independent report released last week says, ‘It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered. They were raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten and intimidated.’”
So it is when Sharia comes to town.
So the story is coming to light just now. Local authorities were afraid to rock the boat. They chose to ignore the scandal in their midst for fear of being termed bigots. So the raping continued. A woman who finally cried foul was denounced for being Islamophobic. She was sent to sensitivity school.
We are now learning that “UK police arrested parents trying to stop Muslims from raping their children.” So it is when Sharia comes to town.
The men and women who run Rotherham are finally being asked to answer for their sin of neglect. There is finger pointing.
These happen to be small-timers, small-time burghers and politicians who can easily be intimidated and corrupted.
But where was prime time? Where was the BBC? During all that time – 16 years! --where was Orla Guerin and the rest of the BBC’s army of resolute reporters? We know this. They weren’t in Rotherham. If they’d been in Rotherham perhaps 100 rapes could have been stopped. Perhaps 10? Or perhaps only one, and even that would have been enough to claim a slice of triumph in the name of journalism.
Instead, Orla Guerin and the rest of the BBC were in Israel. They rotated one staffer after another to cover every inch of the Gaza war. They wept for the “innocent civilians” of Gaza, virtually all of whom, according to recent surveys, support Hamas and favor continued terror and warfare. So much for innocence.
Have there been tears for the girls of Rotherham? If so, occasional viewers like me haven’t noticed. We have, however, noticed that the BBCcan be spot on against every move within the Land of Israel, 1,000 miles away, but can’t find a map for Rotherham, 10 miles away. (Relative figures.)
If a Jewish family in Jerusalem desires to extend its backyard by two feet, the entire world of journalism collapses upon the Jewish State. Swiftly theBBC gathers up its reporters and rushes to the scene with cameras zooming in upon every nuance of the dispute…indeed, every dispute.
If it involves Israel, the issue being however big or small, there you will find the BBC…if the NY Times doesn’t get there first.
No such luck for the girls of Rotherham.
I suggest as powerfully as I can, that this overindulgence, this gluttonous feasting upon Israel, is wholly or partly responsible for the crimes of Rotherham. Pure and honest and bold investigative reporting could have stopped the outrage. If only the BBC had taken its eyes off Israel for a moment.
This obsession against Israel is a sickness afflicting the entire media and the cost is astonishing for all that is not being reported elsewhere.
Humanity…civilized society, pays for these crimes of journalistic neglect. Rotherham is a fact but it is also a symptom.
Instead of 10 crews to cover EVERYTHING about Israel, how about sparing one crew of reporters to cover ANYTHING in your own neighborhoods, BBC.
That could have made a difference between life and death in Rotherham.
Or perhaps Orla Guerin could have shed one tear less for Gaza and one tear more for her own English sisters.
Change Pakistanis to Israelis and see how quickly Miss Guerin would pounce on the story.
This is not to say that the BBC stands alone in the docket. The Guardian and the rest of England’s editors and reporters – where we you? For 16 years your daughters were being raped and, for the sake of diversity, you were mute, and even today you hardly have the courage to name the criminals Pakistani Muslims.
Shame on you.
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. NEW …”The Bathsheba Deadline,” now on Kindle, soon in paperback, the “heroic” and “rousing thriller” they tried to ban for exposing media bias against Israel, written by Novelist Engelhard who viewed all the corruption and obsession against Israel from inside-the-newsroom. The novel saw it all coming ahead of time, Hamas, ISIS. Everything. Engelhard’s most famous work is the int’l bestseller “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Website: www.jackengelhard.com