BBC Aggressors Know How To Point Out The Important Stuff

[Drake Tungsten]

I can't hate the BBC after they reported this information...

Iranian naval forces in the Gulf tried to capture an Australian Navy boarding team but were vigorously repelled, the BBC has learned.

The incident took place before Iran successfully seized 15 British sailors and Marines in March.

The lessons from the earlier attempt do not appear to have been applied in time by British maritime patrols.

The 15 Britons were searching a cargo boat in the Gulf when they were captured over a boundary dispute.

When Iranian Revolutionary Guards captured the British sailors and Royal Marines in March, it was not exactly their first attempt.

It turns out that Iranian forces made an earlier concerted attempt to seize a boarding party from the Royal Australian Navy.

The Australians, though, to quote one military source, "were having none of it".

The BBC has been told the Australians re-boarded the vessel they had just searched, aimed their machine guns at the approaching Iranians and warned them to back off, using what was said to be "highly colourful language".

The Iranians withdrew, and the Australians were reportedly lifted off the ship by one of their own helicopters.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6228342.stm

The Aussies pwn the Pommies yet again.

[MarkG]

Re: Re: BBC Aggeressors Know How To Point Out The Important Stuff

Originally posted by Cort Haus
It's not implying that.

What is relevant is that the figure is substantially removed from the 250,000 figure that is often quoted.

the only other figure mentioned in the article is a 110,000 one....

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
Note the "at least"?

indeed "at least 97,000" sounds more appropriate than "under 100,000" when we're talking about deaths...

[Provost Harrison]

Re: BBC Aggeressors Know How To Point Out The Important Stuff

Originally posted by MarkG
i guess it's ok then

It's certainly not OK. They should've done a sweepstake before announcing the figure and then sent the closest a prize...

[Cort Haus]

Re: Re: Re: BBC Aggeressors Know How To Point Out The Important Stuff

Originally posted by MarkG

Originally posted by Cort Haus
What is relevant is that the figure is substantially removed from the 250,000 figure that is often quoted.

the only other figure mentioned in the article is a 110,000 one....

'often' doesn't mean mentioned elsewhere in the same article, it implies a general elsewhere-ness. It was frequently quoted in the 90's, perhaps less so recently.

For example :

"The most commonly cited figure in the media is between 200,000 and 250,000 Bosnians killed, which the journalist Nick Gowing has traced back to Bosnian government officials."

http://www.radstats.org.uk/no069/article3.htm

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

This is great stuff.

There are two ways of looking at these latest figures.

1- They are a reduction on the previously-accepted consensus figures. This is news.

2- However the figure could still rise and was still unacceptably high at 97,000. This is also news.

The BBC, in it's choice of headlines, has covered both points of view. This is an attempt to achieve balanced reporting by reporting more than one key point of view. Markos is whining about this, being clearly of the opinion that the first piece of news should not have been reported, and that the BBC should have simply reported the one "reasonable" point of view

In the other recent BBC thread, we saw whining that the BBC was not reporting more than one key point of view, but was guilty of just reporting the one "reasonable" point of view in order to attempt balance.

Conclusion- would those whining about BBC reporting like to get together and decide what the **** they actually want before continuing to bore the rest of us comatose with their hysterical conspiracy theories?

[Zkribbler]

Re: Re: Re: BBC Aggeressors Know How To Point Out The Important Stuff

Originally posted by MarkG
no, i think they should have chosen a more appropriate title

In light of the fact that the number which previously was believed to have died was 110,000, the proper headline was that less that 100,000 died. The story was that new facts showed the horrors were slightly less horrible.