Britain’s public service broadcaster BBC has sensationally admitted that it peddled fake news in favour of Israel to demonise those protesting against the war crimes being committed by Israel in Gaza. The globally famous news outlet issued an extraordinary clarification on LIVE TV on Monday.
Tens of thousands of people had taken to the streets across the UK to stage protests against the genocide of innocent Palestinians in Gaza over the weekend. They were angry by the support that Israel received from the UK and the US to carry out a largescale genocide of innocent Palestinians. A Palestinian protest group had also claimed responsibility for spraying blood red paint at the BBC headquarters in London.
A day later, BBC reported that people staging protests against the Israeli carnage and war crimes had in fact done so to express their support for Hamas, which is labelled as a terrorist organisation by the governments of the US and the UK.
A news anchor said that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s visit to a synagogue in London on Monday followed ‘several demonstrations across Britain during which people voiced their backing for Hamas, which many countries including the UK and US consider a terrorist organisation.’
This evoked angry reactions from many since the purpose of the weekend’s mass protests was not to show solidarity with Hamas but to express anger over the killings of more than 1100 children by the Israeli Defence Forces.
Faced with angry reactions and threats of a defamation case, the BBC issued an extraordinary clarification and confession of guilt on LIVE TV. A BBC anchor said, “Earlier on BBC News, we reported on some of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the weekend. We spoke about several demonstrations across Britain during which people voiced their backing for Hamas. We accept that this was poorly phrased and was a misleading description of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations.”
This has further invited criticism for the BBC, which was once the most reputed news organisation in the world. Many are now calling the BBC worse than America’s Fox News, which is often branded as a right-wing propaganda media outlet.
What a fall from grace BBC. You used to a news organisation once. Now you are a fake news peddler. This apology is not good enough. There should be a countrywide campaign to never pay licence fee. #BBC pic.twitter.com/KYnj8ZJm2v
— Lubna U Rifat (@lubnaurifat) October 16, 2023
Not acceptable. People whose visuals were used while broadcasting fake news linking protesters to Hamas should mount defamation case against Director of News, Controller, Head of News, Producer and Presenter. Claim hefty financial compensation. BBC has behaved worse than Fox News https://t.co/rOBw4T5EJN
— Rifat Jawaid (@RifatJawaid) October 16, 2023
I bet this is in response to a legal notice. Put a Head and Shoulder Exec as BBC DG because of his Tory connections and this will happen. To top it all he has hired a GBNews guy to head BBC News.
— Abbas Nasir (@abbasnasir59) October 16, 2023
The BBC has always faced allegations for its tacit support to Israel in its coverage. Many believe that the organisation has become more explicit in its propaganda after John McAndrew was appointed as the Director of News in January this year. McAndrew was previously part of the team that launched a right-wing propaganda media outlet in the UK, GB News. He was also the editor of Andrew Neil show on Britain’s Channel 4. Neil, as well as being the founding chairman of GB News is notorious for his extreme right-wing and pro-Israeli views.