On March 21st the BBC News website published a report by Lina Sinjab headlined “‘We will rescue anyone’: BBC accompanies Syria’s White Helmets after deadly attacks”.
One paragraph in that article is particularly remarkable:
“Throughout the civil war, Assad had branded the White Helmets a terrorist group, alleging it worked for armed rebels. But the group always said it was a neutral, humanitarian organisation and has been praised around the world for its work.”
Notably, Sinjab does not tell her readers that during 2018 and 2019, the BBC itself adopted an editorial policy of promoting false balance – apparently in the name of ‘impartiality’ – by repeatedly publishing reports that amplified and mainstreamed the propaganda concerning the White Helmets put out by the Assad regime and its Russian ally and further spread by assorted conspiracy theorists.
BBC PROMOTES WHAT IT DESCRIBED IN APRIL AS ‘CONSPIRACY THEORIES’
BBC NEWS WEBSITE READERS GET YET ANOTHER DOSE OF ASSAD’S PROPAGANDA
AMPLIFICATION OF ASSAD PROPAGANDA ON BBC WORLD SERVICE RADIO
NEW BBC REPORT ON ‘WHITE HELMETS’ AGAIN AMPLIFIES FALSEHOODS
MORE FALSE BALANCE IN BBC NEWS REPORT ON DOUMA CHEMICAL ATTACK
BBC NEWS AMPLIFIES SYRIAN AND RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA YET AGAIN
BBC NEWS YET AGAIN PROMOTES CONSPIRACY THEORIES
In late 2020 and early 2021 the BBC changed its tune:
REVISITING THE BBC’S AMPLIFICATION OF SYRIAN AND RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA
BBC’S ‘DISINFO’ ARTICLE FAILS TO EXPLAIN WHY IT AMPLIFIED THAT PROPAGANDA
However, BBC audiences have to this day never received an explanation for the corporation’s years of promotion of conspiracy theories concerning the organisation which it now “accompanies”.
