Every time you think it can’t get worse at the BBC it does.
The year began with more reporters for BBC Arabic being exposed for Jew-hate, admiration for Nazism and celebration of the brutal terrorist attacks of Oct 7.
Then came the primetime BBC documentary on Gaza that was revealed to have been narrated by the son of a Hamas official, with a payment made to his family from licence-fee funds. One of the crew members on the documentary had celebrated the Hamas massacre. Footage in the programme had been misleadingly edited. All of this was concealed from viewers by the BBC.
The programme also mistranslated the word “Yahud” which means “Jew”, changing it to “Israeli” or “Israeli army”. In doing so the BBC chose to disguise racist intent. It should not be the job of the BBC to sanitise anti-Semitism but in this particular case they have been doing so for the past ten years despite appeals from Jewish community bodies to correct what is an egregious misrepresentation.
The chief executive of BBC News Deborah Turness saw the programme before broadcast but raised no concerns.
Then came the Glastonbury Festival. Here the BBC broadcast live to the nation a stream of racism and death chants. “F--- Zionists” was followed by “Death to the IDF”. The BBC’s director general Tim Davie was present at the festival that day. He failed to ensure that this racist content was immediately removed from BBC services.
Despite being accountable and responsible for the BBC’s output Mr Davie has spent the days since Glastonbury trying to blame other BBC employees for this disaster and wriggling out of accountability.
On Monday, the BBC at last published its report on the Gaza documentary. The report was prepared by BBC staff member Peter Johnston, who is employed by Mr Davie. In doing so, the BBC has attempted to mark its own homework on an issue of great journalistic significance. While the BBC has acknowledged some faults including on “Yahud” and apologised, Ofcom do not appear satisfied and have launched their own investigation. Serious flaws and omissions in the report will no doubt emerge.
For any public organisation these incidents in such a short period would surely be an untenable weight of failure. Yet there is more.
Every time you think it can’t get worse at the BBC it does.
The year began with more reporters for BBC Arabic being exposed for Jew-hate, admiration for Nazism and celebration of the brutal terrorist attacks of Oct 7.
Then came the primetime BBC documentary on Gaza that was revealed to have been narrated by the son of a Hamas official, with a payment made to his family from licence-fee funds. One of the crew members on the documentary had celebrated the Hamas massacre. Footage in the programme had been misleadingly edited. All of this was concealed from viewers by the BBC.
The programme also mistranslated the word “Yahud” which means “Jew”, changing it to “Israeli” or “Israeli army”. In doing so the BBC chose to disguise racist intent. It should not be the job of the BBC to sanitise anti-Semitism but in this particular case they have been doing so for the past ten years despite appeals from Jewish community bodies to correct what is an egregious misrepresentation.
The chief executive of BBC News Deborah Turness saw the programme before broadcast but raised no concerns.
Then came the Glastonbury Festival. Here the BBC broadcast live to the nation a stream of racism and death chants. “F--- Zionists” was followed by “Death to the IDF”. The BBC’s director general Tim Davie was present at the festival that day. He failed to ensure that this racist content was immediately removed from BBC services.
Despite being accountable and responsible for the BBC’s output Mr Davie has spent the days since Glastonbury trying to blame other BBC employees for this disaster and wriggling out of accountability.
On Monday, the BBC at last published its report on the Gaza documentary. The report was prepared by BBC staff member Peter Johnston, who is employed by Mr Davie. In doing so, the BBC has attempted to mark its own homework on an issue of great journalistic significance. While the BBC has acknowledged some faults including on “Yahud” and apologised, Ofcom do not appear satisfied and have launched their own investigation. Serious flaws and omissions in the report will no doubt emerge.
For any public organisation these incidents in such a short period would surely be an untenable weight of failure. Yet there is more.