Good turnout, Manchester is also the trialing area for the introduction of Workfare or slave labour, I do wonder if we will see the same level of anger/mobilisation on that, I somehow doubt it. I care about Palestine but as a Mcr resident i care about my fellow Mancunians being treated like crap as well.

I've just watched BBC Impact Asia and the two interviews they had were with people deeply critical of the raid (ex editor of Ha'aretz and the Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon). They broadcast the standard Mark Regev denial, but the overall impression was balanced.
Maybe I've missed something because I'm watching BBC in SE Asia and not in the UK but their coverage is fine.

Ben,

Overseas coverage is different. We can hear the difference to when BBC Radio 4 switches to the World Service after midnight. I wouldn't say it's "fine" but it's less openly propagandistic that the coverage produced for domestic consumption, especially prime time TV.

Best,
Jim

One subtle issue is the BBC describing the people on the aid boats as Pro Palestinian. They may be, but I'll bet BBC had not checked this fact. They are clearly humanitarian people . To call them pro Palestinian is to assume that one is either for the Palestian government or the Israeli government. The BBC is pathologiocally unable to think of people without sticking a label on them and when they do that they colour other people's perceptions of those people. The worrying thing is that this is so endemic within the BBC that they do not even know they are doing it, and so frequent that I suspect many of the people seeing or hearing BBC news are no longer aware of it.

Right, so the BBC is evil and deserves to be attacked because it sums up those trying to break the blockade and help the Palestinians as - shock - "pro Palestinian".

As noted above: "One subtle issue is the BBC describing the people on the aid boats as Pro Palestinian... To call them pro Palestinian is to assume that one is either for the Palestian government or the Israeli government."

Err... OK. Or the BBC could just be saying it because they believe the protestors feel Palestinians themselves deserve support. Or - crazy thought - because the Free Gaza Movement, those taking part in the attempt to break the blockade, have described themselves as part of the Palestinian solidary movement. If the BBC wanted to say they were pro the Palestinian government, surely they'd call them the shorter "Pro Fatah" or, the more Israel-friendly, "Pro Hamas"?

Anyway, apparently suggesting that the protestors are pro the Palestinian state is what the BBC have done that's evil and wrong. So what do the protestors in Manchester do to show their displeasure at this? Stick a Palestinian flag on the roof of the BBC, suggesting that they themselves are Pro Palestinian. Oh - that clears it right up...

As ever, for every group of whingers saying the BBC is anti Palestinian, there's another (admittedly, even loopier) group saying the BBC is outrageously anti-Israel. See "Jihad excusing BBC" on  http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/ which is outraged that the BBC's been running reports titled "Doubts cast on Israeli raid account"...

... and organizations who blindly sided with the IHH and their antisemitic, racist and nationalist mob and now notice that their so-called "international solidarity" endamages themselves.

Maybe they were angry with the BBC because the BBC dared to air some turkish tv-footage that clearly showed pro-palestinean "peace"-activists on the "Marva Marmara" beating, clubbing and stabbing some IDF who just entered the deck of the ship with no weapons in their hands?

Eddie Muir's right Norvello, the way people will react to "Israel kills pro-Palestinian activists", or even specifically "Israel kills non-violent pro-Palestinian activists", is entirely different to the way people would react to "Israel kills humanitarian aid workers", which in this context is slightly more accurate.

yeah, I think it's also things like - not challenging Israeli commentators referring to the peace activists as 'terrorists' and 'al qaeda' during interviews; referring to activists having 'died' as opposed to having been 'killed'; giving disproportionate lengths of air time to pro-Israeli commentators; failing to mention that being in international waters, the crew/passengers of these vessels had a right to defend themselves against an assault; publishing propaganda video from the IDF, knowing that the footage was heavily edited; etc

Every cloud has a silver lining.

The BBC's huge new centre in Salford Quays is a waste of money and a symbol of the region's relentless decline but at least all the lefty rentamob people who frequently use the BBC as a focus for their bad tempered demos will soon have to traipse all the way to the bonny banks of the ship canal to vent their spleen, so leaving the city centre free for people to go about their busines uninterrupted by their antics.