CBS This Morning ran a short but relatively informative segment on the boycott against Israel today. While covering the Rolling Stones performance in Tel Aviv last night, a CBS announcer started quoting Roger Waters and Nick Mason. Along with a clip from Pink Floyd’s iconic rock classic Another Brick in the Wall, with the sound track running through most of the segment these words were spoken:
But the historic concert might never have happened had fellow British rockers Pink Floyd convinced the Stones to join them in a boycott and build a cultural wall around Israel.
[soundtrack: All in all it’s just a nother brick in the wall]
Pink Floyd lead singer Roger Waters is a vocal opponent of what he believes is Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.
Here he is addressing a United Nations committee in 2012:
We found that the state of Israel is guilty of a number of International Crimes.
Last month he and band mate Nick Mason told the Rolling Stones that they should boycott Israel just as the Stones boycotted South Africa during apartheid.
…..”Crossing the picket line provides propaganda that the Israeli government will use in its attempt to whitewash its unjust and racist regime,” they wrote.
I’m flabbergasted!
(Hat tip Jim Harris)
“I’m flabbergasted!” At actual reporting going on at CBS?
Perhaps it is a measure of the relative noise made complaining about coverage that portrays Israel in “too favorable” a light, vs an “unfavorable” one. At some point, at the journalistic level, when the complaints even out, you just report the news. At the ownership level, perhaps more and more people who care for Israel realize that BDS is necessary to break the grip the right-wing has on the government in Israel, or have just become ambivalent about it, too much to actively interfere in journalism.
“Pink Floyd lead singer Roger Waters is a vocal opponent of what he believes is Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.”
What HE believes? They can never discuss this topic without using weasel words.
Hooray! I’m thrilled! (and a bit flabbergasted)
More please.
“it might never have happened if….”
It also might never have happened if a pink-nosed fairy came down from outerspace in a light-tube and whispered in Keith Richards ear that he should conk Mick Jagger on the head with a coconut. But that didn’t happen either, did it…….
having seen the actual report this morning it actually went a bit longer than this clip shows (perhaps edited to avoid copyright issues?) . the full report ended with something like “the Rolling Stones were not alone in crossing the line” and listing other entertainers that have also played or intend to play Israel. but this is responded to by someone saying that despite this, the boycott serves as a tool of education. despite its brevity and lack of informing viewers of the context (how much info can you get in 2 minutes?), it did and will inform some. and piss-off others.