Here is a screenshot of the BBC News website’s live updates page in its Middle East section from Tuesday evening (November 20th).
As you see, the BBC informs readers that:
“The Guardian’s Seamus Milne says in a new article that looking at the timeline of events, Israel is responsible for the military escalation that led to the current conflict.”
Well, seeing as the BBC has been pushing that theme incessantly for the past week at least, it is hardly surprising that it would promote the same kind of selective vision from a fellow bird of a feather. Not surprisingly, Milne’s screed also promotes another favourite BBC trope: ‘it’s all because of the elections’.
But that is not all that Milne’s BBC-endorsed article says. It also condones rocket attacks and other forms of violence against Israeli civilians, glorifies terror and even calls for the further arming of Palestinian militias.
See commentary on Milne’s article here and here.
Did the BBC employee who decided to promote Milne’s article actually read those parts? Did he or she consider that an appropriate message to promote and circulate to the millions of readers of the BBC website?
It would be very interesting to hear what Steve Herrmann – Editor of the BBC News website – has to say. He surely would not invoke the wriggle-out clause ” The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites“.
Ofcom Broadcasting Code – Section 2 – Harm and Offence.
BBC Editorial Guidelines – Section 5 – Harm and Offence.
