500 criticise BBC 'I cried for Arafat' report

I bet they got a lot more than 500 complaints.

The Telegraph reports how the BBC was swamped with complaints about its' Middle East correspondent, Barbara Plett's on air admission that she cried when Arafat left for France.

"When the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose above his ruined compound, I started to cry . . . without warning," she said.

All too typical of the BBC. How can anyone trust this organization for fair and unbiased reporting?

I don't.

The BBC's response?

BBC sources said that senior editors had remonstrated with Plett over her words, adding that she too accepted that they had been "misjudged". A BBC spokesman said: "From Our Own Correspondent is one of the few programmes that offers listeners personal stories behind the headlines, a format which permits correspondents to write freely."

However, the fact that a Middle East correspondent has such sympathies will fuel claims that of BBC bias towards the Arabs.

Well, hiring the former editor in chief of Al Jazeera doesn't help either.

It is not enough that we in the blogsphere expose blatant media bias, we must take action to end such bias. That is why I added a media complaints section to my blogroll. Please use it to express your complaints to the BBC.
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