An odd journey to the BBC bias against Israel: the BBC admits doctoring Donald Trump’s words
President Trump is threatening to sue the BBC for $1 billion for splicing together two separate statements he made on Jan. 6, 2021, fifty minutes apart, and presenting them as a single statement. The upshot of the specious linkage is that Trump was portrayed as advocating violence inside the US Capitol. He didn’t say what the BBC broadcast him as having said.
Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6 was a disgraceful attempt to prevent the smooth transfer of power, whatever he said.
The BBC’s false reporting was a disgraceful attempt to distort the news. Its false report on Trump — a characterization that the BBC now admits — ran a week before the 2024 election.
It’s a BBC habit.
The BBC distorts the news on Israel. Its reportage on Israel’s war against Hamas falls into a pattern. If it conveys a critical perspective of Israel, it’s broadcast; if it’s favorable perspective, it’s likely not broadcast.
This charge may sound like a paranoid defense of Israel, but the charge is not made by a pro-Israel partisan. It is made by none other than Michael Prescott, a former adviser to the BBC’s internal standards committee.
Note that word: former.
Prescott left the BBC last summer because of its poor journalistic standards and its failure to correct them.
Note that word: former.
Tim Davie, BBC director-general, and Deborah Turness, BBC News chief executive, both quit after the exposure of the way the BBC doctored Trump’s words on Jan. 6.
About that broadcast, BBC Chairman Samir Shah now admits to the British Parliament that the BBC erroneously edited Trump’s speeches, and Chairman Shah apologized. “It was an error of judgment,” Shah said.
These are the people who tell us that BBC’s coverage of Israel and Gaza is unbiased . . .
Check: the BBC has admitted that one of its reports on Gaza was animated by the son of a Hamas operative.
Check: the Wall Street Journal reports that the BBC’s Arabic-language service fails to translate many stories that might offer a positive perspective on Israel.
Check: Per the WSJ, the Arabic-language service has been forced to correct two stories per week, on average, since Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel.
Check: Staff of the Arabic language service celebrated the Oct. 7 atrocities by Hamas.
This is not the whole checklist. Samir Shah says there are “underlying problems” at the BBC.
In case you are wondering why the “‘genocide” charge against Israel has acquired credibility in wide circles, look no further than the anti-Israel bias at major media like the BBC and The New York Times. The only difference between the BBC and other media who trade on their reputation to defame Israel is that the BBC now stands exposed.
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