Keeping it Real…

A reader has shared with me the response received to a letter written after my May 11 article “Israel Turns 60: Still Can’t Make BBC World Weather” in which I questionned why BBC World’s on -air weather seems to NEVER highlight Israeli cities in its Mid-East regional weather/temperature listings. .. only Arab cities.

First, here is the entire BBC reply  … then let’s discuss it.   

“We shortened the weather spots in order to devote more time to programming on the channel. At the time we realised that we were asking a lot of the remaining 60 seconds of weather bulletin and have tried our best to regionalise the data so that it’s pertinent to the peak time zones during the day. That said, we are currently looking at ways to regionalise that data further.

In the brief amount of time available it isn’t really possible to provide forecasts covering each region of the world in every hour – and pan-regional international channels are not the best place to look for a detailed forecast for particular places, if that’s what you need.

Our forecasters, who work for the UK’s Met. Office, aim to give an overview of the conditions in key cities in a mix of regions. We will concentrate on specific areas at different times, usually with the regions currently in peak viewing time in mind. Meteorological variations and events may cause changes to this on a case-by-case basis.

Of course, you can get detailed forecasts, for up to 5 days ahead, for thousands of world cities here on http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/

We continue to try and improve the channel and welcome viewer feedback. I am aware that the weather bulletins as they stand sometimes leave viewers disappointed and it is a high priority to try and increase their level of usefulness in the future.

Best regards

Mario Giannini

BBC World News

Well there we have it … the BBC apparently does not see Israel as having any communities worthy of being considered a ” key city”  in the region of the Middle East.  But Muscat is ??? 

 I dare say millions upon millions more BBC World News viewers, especially in Europe, North America and South America have heard of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem … than Muscat! In my opinion, this is just another part of the BBC World News’ second rate treatment of Israel. 

How, I believe,  they also do that in their news segment was examined in great detail  in another article in my International Section,  March 17 “A BBC War Against Israel? ” … also in my Private Notes of the same date.

If this bias and marginalization of Israel in both its news coverage and even its weather listings concerns you as much as it does I, you can let the BBC know.  Basic fairness demands it.  bbcworldnews@bbc.com 

And speaking out CAN bring about change. 

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