No Malevolence Intended, Heavens No!

"I recognize the difficulties that are often faced reporters on the ground, particularly in conflict zones: Lengthy assignments, unavailable spokespeople, unverifiable facts, language barriers that put us at the mercy of interpreters and guides."
Radio-Canada ombudsman Pierre Tourangeau

Ah, Radio-Canada, within which institution there is no shortage of practising, faithful and sometimes vocal anti-Semites. One such being a Middle East reporter for the station, correspondent Ginette Lamarche. Who appears to delight in pushing the boundaries of decent reportage, preferring bias to the far more professional, but obviously inadequate objectivity expected of most respected people in her line of work.

Ms. Lamarche, it was found, was responsible for a certain number of correspondence breaches. All simply incidental and without malice aforethought. They were, went the report, obviously "involuntary and accidental". So, a simple metaphorical wrist-slap and an expression of faith in the good work of a Radio-Canada correspondent reporting on the incidents of violence in the Middle East.

Specifically between the Palestinian factions and the State of Zionists. Doubtless, this good woman takes her cue from the likes of George Galloway. Converting issues to suit her frame of reference in describing an IDF "attack" against Gaza when it responded defensively against a multitude of rockets sent over the border into Israel, terrorizing border towns. Subtle it was not.

Describing territory mentioned by Hamas leader Khaled Meshal as "Palestine" to mean the West Bank and Gaza, when the man was obviously referring to the entire area inclusive of Israel, which Hamas has every intention of recovering for the Palestinians, in the process respecting its charter determination to destroy and obliterate the State of Israel.

One of her reports referred to Palestinian youth who could look forward to a future where they would languish with a "good part of their youth in jail" that could be anticipated as punishment for throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. Corrected by Honest Reporting Canada, a media monitor that is pro-Israel that quoted statistics citing the maximum sentence youth face for that offence as 15 months.

And another report by Ms. Lamarche where she overlooked the violence of pro-Palestinian demonstrators which dictated Israeli forces shooting in a skirmish that took place near the Syrian border. Mr. Tourangeau felt that in this instance, Ms. Lamarche's report may conceivably have represented a lack of "exactitude".

Or her report on the deadly encounter between Israeli sailors and violent activists aboard the deck of the M/V Mavi Marmara, where the seizure of the vessel, legal under international law, and given that clearance by the UN, was characterized by correspondent Lamarche pejoratively, leading a brief correction by Mr. Toureangeau to state that she had "misused the word 'attack'".

And my dears, all is forgiven. Carry on, do.