Gaza: where a howl of pain and outrage is the only point of view

For journalists covering the horror in Gaza, it must feel obscene to stick to the old routine of 'fairness and balance'

Hundreds of dead women and children don't help. But nor do eight dead journalists, shot or blasted away in Gaza: Palestinian cameramen and reporters doing their job. If you're a correspondent living the horrors of the Strip from one ceasefire to the next, keeping count of the toll, tweeting pictures of carnage (like the BBC's wonderful Ian Pannell), wearing the kid gloves of fairness and balance must seem somewhere between obscene and impossible.

It's a desperate task, gallantly performed. But there are times, remember, where the rituals of F and B don't work at all when the truth is a howl of pain and outrage. Jon Snow had one of those YouTube moments a few days ago when he got back from Gaza. Listen to Aidan White from the Ethical Journalism Network: "Bias is not always propaganda some stories only make ethical sense when told by journalists with a point of view." Especially as they wade through pools of blood.