More pointless ‘analysis’ from BBC Verify

On January 21st – two days after the release of the first three Israeli hostages under the terms of the ceasefire agreement – the BBC News website published a video titled “BBC Verify analyses Hamas hostage handover video”, the synopsis to which reads as follows:

“Hamas footage of the moment three hostages were handed over showed celebrating crowds.

But what exactly happened in that moment? BBC Verify’s Nick Eardley examines video from the scene.”

As with so much of the content produced by BBC Verify, those who watched that two-minute-and-twenty-three-second ‘examination’ may well have asked themselves what was its point. Nick Eardley and the BBC Verify team failed to provide any relevant information which had not previously been available in the public domain.

Eardley begins by telling viewers that the footage “was filmed, edited and released by Hamas” – a fact which was known two days earlier. He goes on to mention the “brown paper bag” given to each of the three female hostages – also information which had been in the public domain for two days.

Most of Eardley’s video relates to the size of the “gathered crowd”.

Eardley: “A lot of attention has been paid to the gathered crowd; its size, who’s there and what it says about the strength of Hamas after 15 months of war”.

He goes on to tell viewers that BBC Verify has “geo-located” the “location of the handover” as being “al Saraya square in Gaza City” – a fact which was not in dispute – before going on:

Eardley: “The crowd for the handover is large and tightly packed. Some people are dressed in Hamas fatigues, many of them identified as Hamas’ elite unit. Designed to be a message that, despite the war, senior fighters are still alive, still operating in Gaza, perhaps even still in control given the size of the assembled crowd. We can’t of course be sure who’s behind the balaclavas.”

Eardley goes on to show drone footage of the scene, referring to “densely packed areas” and others in which “the crowds are quite sparse”. That footage had already been in the public domain for two days but BBC Verify added the unverified speculation that “some of those pictured appeared to potentially just be passing by”. Eardley tells viewers that according to BBC Verify’s count, the crowd was made up of some 1,400 people and that an anonymous “crowd expert” estimated the numbers as “roughly between eleven hundred and twenty-two hundred people”.

BBC Verify’s ‘analysis’ concludes:

Eardley: “Now let’s focus on this scene. The people identified as Hamas because of their uniforms are concentrated in the middle, near the cars. They’re a minority of the crowd. The Red Cross has said the transfer of the hostages was complex and required rigorous security measures. There are more exchanges planned as the ceasefire progresses.”

That Red Cross statement had already been reported the previous day on a BBC News website ‘live page’.

Notably, neither BBC Verify nor any other BBC journalist, insofar as we are aware, had anything to tell the corporation’s audiences about the fact that the Red Cross had not visited those or any other hostages in over 15 months and that its “rigorous security measures” did not include preventing armed terrorists from standing on top of its vehicles or terrifying the three female hostages.

Neither does BBC Verify’s ‘examination’ come anywhere near to answering the question it itself posed concerning the manipulative footage: “what it says about the strength of Hamas after 15 months of war”.

By focusing audience attentions on analysis of images of crowds and estimates of numbers, this BBC Verify ‘analysis’ fails to answer the question posed in its synopsis: “what exactly happened in that moment?” BBC Verify chose to sideline the main point which would have struck most people watching that Hamas supplied footage: its portrayal of the final chapter of over fifteen months of intimidation of three young women by a terrorist organisation. 

 

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