When BBC executives watch the criticism of their reporting on Israel by the Trump administration, their reaction is likely to be defensive and dismissive.
Senior BBC leaders will instantly discount the critique because it comes from the administration of a world leader they do not respect or take seriously. Deep-seated structural bias in the newsroom will allow them to dismiss what has been said with a shrug of the shoulders. Liberal hubris and condescension will override any deeper introspection.
What is much less likely is that director-general Tim Davie and his team will have the powers of self-scrutiny to honestly and transparently ask themselves whether this criticism might have some validity, be something they should take seriously and may even be something to learn from.
In so much of its reporting now, the BBC’s modus operandi is to report first and ask questions later. A desperate desire to provide breaking news and win the reporting race on social media means that our national broadcaster consistently reports on Israel before it knows the facts or has any real idea what is going on.
This is what leads to debacles like we have seen this week, in which the story the corporation has reported on food distribution in Gaza has repeatedly changed as it has become clear that the BBC newsroom had been duped once again by Hamas propaganda.
It is truly remarkable how often we are seeing BBC journalists regurgitate the propaganda of a genocidal terrorist organisation without proper journalistic scrutiny, fact-checking or indeed any kind of due care and attention. It should be shocking to us all that our national broadcaster gives so much uncritical credence to a murderous terrorist group who build command centres under hospitals and schools – and deliberately use the civilian population as human shields.
If you are wondering why the BBC is so ready and willing to accept the words of terrorists the answer to that is simple. Too often, BBC journalists want to think the very worst of Israel. When they receive “information” that appears to validate their anti-Israel perspective, the desire to report it without question or proper scrutiny becomes a driving impulse.
This practice of reporting first and then asking questions later, of offering unverified opinions instead of what is actually known, is eating away at the journalistic credibility of BBC News. Whilst corrections may eventually follow, they are dangerously too little too late. By then BBC reports have spread like wildfire across the globe. Many millions see the initial, inaccurate story. A few thousand read the correction. This is why the BBC has become a fertile breeding ground for misinformation and disinformation on behalf of the Jew-killers of Hamas.
Let me leave you with one blatant example of this from the BBC’s international editor Jeremy Bowen. On a flagship BBC programme this week, Mr Bowen was asked about allegations that Israeli soldiers had fired on civilians at a food collection centre. The fog of war surrounding these events is yet to clear. Israel has denied shooting at civilians. It is at this point impossible to know the facts.
But within hours of the event, Mr Bowen had made up his mind, blithely concluding that Israel is to blame “because that volume of casualties is the kind of volume that the Israelis only are able to inflict”. How did Mr Bowen know this? What facts were his opinions based on? Why was he so certain when so little was known or had been proven?
This is not an academic debate about journalistic accuracy. Those running the BBC still do not understand that these failures in their reporting, their report first and ask questions later approach, has become a clear and present danger to the safety of Jews in Britain and around the world.
Misleading headlines and unverified reporting is driving hate against Israel and racism against Jews. This racism is turning violent. Jews are being set alight and murdered. I do not know where it will end but it is about time BBC leaders began to listen and take responsibility.
When BBC executives watch the criticism of their reporting on Israel by the Trump administration, their reaction is likely to be defensive and dismissive.
Senior BBC leaders will instantly discount the critique because it comes from the administration of a world leader they do not respect or take seriously. Deep-seated structural bias in the newsroom will allow them to dismiss what has been said with a shrug of the shoulders. Liberal hubris and condescension will override any deeper introspection.
What is much less likely is that director-general Tim Davie and his team will have the powers of self-scrutiny to honestly and transparently ask themselves whether this criticism might have some validity, be something they should take seriously and may even be something to learn from.
In so much of its reporting now, the BBC’s modus operandi is to report first and ask questions later. A desperate desire to provide breaking news and win the reporting race on social media means that our national broadcaster consistently reports on Israel before it knows the facts or has any real idea what is going on.
This is what leads to debacles like we have seen this week, in which the story the corporation has reported on food distribution in Gaza has repeatedly changed as it has become clear that the BBC newsroom had been duped once again by Hamas propaganda.
It is truly remarkable how often we are seeing BBC journalists regurgitate the propaganda of a genocidal terrorist organisation without proper journalistic scrutiny, fact-checking or indeed any kind of due care and attention. It should be shocking to us all that our national broadcaster gives so much uncritical credence to a murderous terrorist group who build command centres under hospitals and schools – and deliberately use the civilian population as human shields.
If you are wondering why the BBC is so ready and willing to accept the words of terrorists the answer to that is simple. Too often, BBC journalists want to think the very worst of Israel. When they receive “information” that appears to validate their anti-Israel perspective, the desire to report it without question or proper scrutiny becomes a driving impulse.
This practice of reporting first and then asking questions later, of offering unverified opinions instead of what is actually known, is eating away at the journalistic credibility of BBC News. Whilst corrections may eventually follow, they are dangerously too little too late. By then BBC reports have spread like wildfire across the globe. Many millions see the initial, inaccurate story. A few thousand read the correction. This is why the BBC has become a fertile breeding ground for misinformation and disinformation on behalf of the Jew-killers of Hamas.
Let me leave you with one blatant example of this from the BBC’s international editor Jeremy Bowen. On a flagship BBC programme this week, Mr Bowen was asked about allegations that Israeli soldiers had fired on civilians at a food collection centre. The fog of war surrounding these events is yet to clear. Israel has denied shooting at civilians. It is at this point impossible to know the facts.
But within hours of the event, Mr Bowen had made up his mind, blithely concluding that Israel is to blame “because that volume of casualties is the kind of volume that the Israelis only are able to inflict”. How did Mr Bowen know this? What facts were his opinions based on? Why was he so certain when so little was known or had been proven?
This is not an academic debate about journalistic accuracy. Those running the BBC still do not understand that these failures in their reporting, their report first and ask questions later approach, has become a clear and present danger to the safety of Jews in Britain and around the world.
Misleading headlines and unverified reporting is driving hate against Israel and racism against Jews. This racism is turning violent. Jews are being set alight and murdered. I do not know where it will end but it is about time BBC leaders began to listen and take responsibility.