Another chapter in the BBC campaign to promote a chosen narrative

On September 5^th the ‘culture’ page of the BBC News website promoted an item showing what are described as “12 of the most striking images of 2025 so far”.

Credited to “BBC Culture Feature Writer” Kelly Grovier, the full headline of that feature –“Diving swimmers to meteor showers: 12 of the most striking images of 2025 so far” – is soon followed by a warning.

Presumably neither the monks, the divers nor the meteor showers would prompt such a warning, so what did?

The eleventh photo in that feature is presented as follows:

The first link in that commentary leads to a July 29^th report by David Gritten titled “Famine ‘currently playing out’ in Gaza, UN-backed experts warn” which related to an IPC alert put out on that date and was one of one of seven items relating to the topic published on the BBC News website on the same day, as part of a coordinated campaign.

On August 22^nd the IPC put out its full report, which was similarly given extensive, yet uncritical, amplification by the BBC, with no subsequent efforts made on its part to inform audiences of the many criticisms of that report’s methodology.

As we see, Grovier not only promotes that IPC alert as evidence of famine “in Gaza” as a whole (rather than in the specific area defined in the alert and later report) but also – like far too many other BBC journalists before him – fails to clarify that the image he selected shows a child who suffers from an underlying medical condition – Cerebral Palsy.

BBC AGAIN FAILS TO PROVIDE CONTEXT TO ‘STARVING GAZA BABY’ PHOTOS

Information concerning that disabled child’s medical condition has been in the public domain since July 27^th. Nevertheless, forty-one days later the BBC News website’s “culture editors” chose to use that photograph taken by Ahmed al Arini – along with Grovier’s blatantly editorialised commentary – to amplify a context-free narrative of “famine”.

Once again we see that the BBC’s supposed commitment to accurate and impartial reporting is soon abandoned when the opportunity arises to promote a narrative designed to support a political campaign to which it has self-conscripted.