When the news broke of the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran early on July 31st, the BBC News website opened a live page edited by Francesca Gillett and Sophie Abdulla.
Early entries on that live page already provided indication of the BBC’s chosen framing of that story.
The last time Israeli security forces tried – and apparently succeeded – to assassinate Deif was on July 13th 2024. Apparently the BBC has forgotten that it produced several reports on that topic:
BBC REPORTS ON STRIKE ON HAMAS LEADERS IGNORE THE ISSUE OF HUMAN SHIELDS
Apparently the BBC has also forgotten that it reported the killing of Marwan Issa in March and produced at least four items about the death of Saleh al Arouri in Beirut in January.
BBC NEWS REPORTING ON SALEH AL AROURI HIGHLIGHTS YEARS OF OMISSION
The BBC Jerusalem bureau’s Yolande Knell was quick off the mark with framing of Haniyeh as “moderate and pragmatic”, citing unidentified “analysts”. She repeated that framing in a filmed report which appeared on the live page at 08:39.
Other BBC journalists promoted the same framing.
BBC audiences were not informed that former UNRWA teacher Haniyeh was designated by the US State Department or of his long record of decidedly less than “moderate” and “pragmatic” speeches which include incitement to violence.
His celebration of Hamas’ October 7th massacre (together with Saleh al Arouri) is also absent from the portrayals promoted by BBC journalists.
BBC presentation of “the last known pictures of Haniyeh” fails to inform audiences that the inauguration he attended included chants of ‘death to America and Israel’.
BBC audiences were also provided with seemingly impartial analysis from an academic.
The editors of the live page did not bother to inform readers that Hashemi’s social media is full of anti-Israel content and disinformation or that he is a non-resident fellow at the anti-Israel NGO ‘DAWN’.
In addition, visitors to this live page found yet more promotion of Hizballah propaganda relating to its attack on Majdal Shams on July 27th.
Additional framing was promoted on the topic of ceasefire negotiations.
Predictably, BBC audiences are not told that Haniyeh could have brought an end to the hostilities at any time throughout the past nearly ten months by ordering his fellow terrorists in the Gaza Strip to release the hostages and surrender.
As this initial BBC coverage shows, the partisan narrative chosen by the BBC is one whereby Israel is already to blame for the continuation and possible escalation of the war because it allegedly eliminated the “moderate” and “pragmatic” leader of a brutal terrorist organisation who had not shown any evidence of wanting to reach a ceasefire for nigh on 300 days.
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Just goes to prove the BBC News team are the mouthpiece of Iran, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Their bias against Israel is no longer hidden from its audience, you would have to be a complete moron to think they are unbiased. #defundthebbc