BBC Apologies

BBC Apologies: Repeated Mistakes and the Importance of Correction

Article based on Dan Abrams Live

On the site bbc.com in the help and feedback section not quite on the main page, an apology appeared, which partially says: “We published the news that Hamas accuses the Israeli army of carrying out mass executions in the Gaza Strip. This was a Hamas statement. We have not made sufficient efforts to find evidence to support Hamas’ claim. We apologize for this mistake.”

The problem is that this apology, which is practically hidden on their website, appeared only in January. But the very information for which they apologize, that Israel executed civilians without trial, was published on Christmas Eve. This means that millions of their readers could read it and spread it on social media аnd most importantly believe in it for more than two weeks.

Insufficient verification and reliability of sources

I think the BBC has come to an enlightened realization that maybe Hamas is not the most reliable source. Which brings me back to this part of the apology, and I quote: «It was a statement from Hamas». Thus, the prestigious British Broadcasting Corporation believes in the word of a terrorist organization, which the United Kingdom and many other countries have recognized as a terrorist group and takes it as a fact.

But the biggest problem is that it doesn’t surprise anyone, because this is exactly the same news agency that, after the October 7 massacre, where women were raped and babies were burned, defended its decision not to call Hamas terrorists, but to consider it militants. They eventually changed this policy, but only after widespread criticism.

Repeated errors and unsubstantiated assumptions

Remember how back in October they covered the massive explosion at the al-Ahly hospital in the Gaza Strip, which turned out to be a mistaken rocket fired by the “Islamic Jihad” at the Israeli military?

“We have been contacted for comment, and they have stated that they are investigating. But you know, it’s hard to imagine what else it could be, given the scale of the explosion, other than an Israeli airstrike or several airstrikes”.

By the way, a few days later, the BBC said:” We recognize that even in such a dynamic situation, it was wrong to speculate in this way. It doesn’t reflect the whole work of the BBC.” But in reality, this is the core of the BBC content problem.

The need for correction and apologies

Less than a month after that, on November 15, the BBC apologizes for incorrect information that the Israeli Defense Forces were allegedly targeting that Israeli troops had entered Gaza’s main hospital. She stated that the targets are medical teams and Arabic-speaking specialists. This was wrong and wrong.

Interesting message. “We should have said that the Israeli Forces included medical teams and Arabic-speaking specialists for this operation. Therefore, we apologize for this error”. So, you claimed that Israel was trying to kill medics and Arab-speaking people, when in fact the Israeli forces were composed of medics and Arab-speaking people. Probably to help the wounded from Gaza.

Conclusion

In the end, a trifle, three major mistakes of the BBC, each of which made the assumption that Israel was guilty of something terrible in one form or another, which in the end turned out to be completely or probably wrong. We contacted the BBC and invited them, but they declined to participate, saying that no one was available. In the past, they’ve said the same thing to us when we invited them.

Article based on
Dan Abrams Live