Is the BBC anti Israel and/or antisemitic

[Newbutoldfather]

BBC coverage ‘institutionally hostile’ to Israel, say Jewish groups

https://www.thetimes.com/article/a4aa31e2-0084-4bf4-bb33-b93d02917440?shareToken=e38d95867859d345f297becf90753213

As a secular Jew who recognises that the current Israeli government has made many mistakes and is arguably racist, I still do find the BBC’s coverage to be horribly biased against Israel.

It isn’t just the words they use but the tone they use, the juxtaposition of the words and images, errors off omission, and also the time allocated to either side’s perspective.

As an example, when Nasrallah was killed, there was about 5 minutes about how Israel had killed a major leader of the Axis of Resistance, delivered in a stentorian and sad tone, pictures of mourning Lebanese and lots on whether this wouldn’t push the conflict over the edge (with lots of powerful images of the bombing, crying women etc). There was then a very brief cut to the IDF statement with very little comment.

Both Orla Guerin and Jeremy Bowen have been accused of antisemitism many many times over the years, but they are knowledgeable, clever and slippery. And, most importantly, very litigious with licence payer’s money. It is very hard to nail them as, as I mentioned above, a lot of it is about juxtaposition, tone and only telling half the story (see link attached).

But maybe I am wrong? I would love to hear others’ opinions. Remember this is about BBC bias only, not your overall view on Israel or the ‘Axis of Resistance’.

You misunderstand how bias works. The BBC is unbiased across its output. When the news is that a major figure has been assassinated in a manner that breaks the Geneva convention, using bunker buster bombs in a civilian area, that is what the report is. There is no requirement to spend an equal amount of time in that report on the Israeli justifications.

You mean they shouldn't defend themselves and when Iran, Hezbollah the Houthis, Hamas etc attack they should just roll over and die.

Iran fund terrorists who are all over the middle east causing mayhem and you blame Israel.

They appear scared to upset terrorists and their supporters.

Imagine if these terrorists were around our borders constantly firing rockets into the UK. Should we just suck it up. They want to destroy the good things in life.

Exactly this

I guess if we don't have people illegally settling other counties , if we don't have our soldiers in other countries , regularly killing their citizens then we have less to fear from terrorists ?

When we did have a terrorist problem ( Northern Ireland ) we solved it eventually- by talking. Listening. Making compromises. Not by creating more people who hate us by killing their friends and families

It seems you’re suggesting that I’m against Israel defending itself. Not at all.
I am vehemently against Israel’s disproportionate and genocidal response to the October 7th attacks.

People who have very strong opinions one way or the other are the least able to judge bias.

People see lack of support for their view as bias for the other side, it’s human nature and it happens time and time again. The BBC works under incredibly difficult circumstances constantly trying to resist people on both sides of every conflict screaming at them that they are biased towards the other side. I think their reporters do an incredibly job under unimaginable pressure and at great risk to their own lives and wellbeing.

Interesting interview with John Simpson explaining why the BBC does not describe terrorist organisations as such using it's own voice but will say that others describe them as terrorist organisations:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67083432.amp

Sorry, I see someone already posted that interview.

The BBC reported on pretty much each individual hostage and victim in those awful harrowing attacks a year ago. It really brought them to life and it was devastating to read about all the innocent lives full of promise cut short in such horrific fashion.

Yet when it came to the bombing of Gaza, bar a few individual reports, we just got numbers of deaths. Big numbers. But just numbers. There were people, children, behind those numbers too.

That often left me wondering about whether BBC has pro Israel bias.

But given the feelings to the contrary it seems it is probably about in the middle somewhere

If is saddening to learn about the horrors that don't get reported here

The whole situation is just devastating and I really hope somehow it can de-escalate because the alternative is harrowing for everyone trying to live lives in that part of the world

I would have said yes, it's very clear that the BBC has a an obvious anti-Israel stance. However, in just the last couple of days, I've heard lots of very pro-Israel comment on R4.

(this makes me a bit worried that they're gearing up for the UK to become involved with Israel and the US against Iran)

If anything I would say BBC is more likely to be pro Israel, they tend to give a lot of weight to the Government's stance. Having said that I won't hear a word against Orla Guerin she's been a heroine of mine for many years - bit of a girl crush!

I watch channel 4 news as they definitely feel more independent. They are much more straight talking too, a spade is a spade!

I don't watch BBC news but I listen to radio 4 and find it biased against Israel. I'm not Jewish or Muslim.

Iran's (and Hamas and Hezbollah) mission is to literally genocide Israel. But time and again people are not challenged when they come on the radio and claim Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza.

BBC for months reported Hamas figures as facts, when they were always grossly exaggerated or lies. E.g. when that hospital was bombed and it was just the car park that got hit, BBC reported that 400 people had died and later had to retract what they had reported so confidently. BBC rarely make the point that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields, or that actual urban warfare experts confirm that Israel much more care to avoid killing civilians than any other country engaged in urban warfare.

This is the current lead story on BBC new's homepage. Would you say this is pro-Israel, anti-Israel or neutral? For instance, it doesn't say "Israel's invasion of Lebanon leaves eight Israeli soldiers and uncounted Lebanese civilians dead", but nor does it say "Hezbollah murders eight Israelis". What do you think?

Compare it to these two titles . Who killed them?

bbc has been criticised for “hiding” Israel from its titles

I do agree they’re not pro Israel or pro Palestine. They might try their best and not do it right for anyone

Just now on radio 4 Today, a man was able to talk about the awful fear and suffering of civilians in southern Lebanon without mentioning once that Hezbollah has been firing rockets at Israeli citizens since October 8th 2023, and Israel are finally retaliating and defending their people and their land. At least the presenter reminded him that Hezbollah are terrorists.

I am not going to comment on the BBC itself, because I do not watch their news very often. These days I mainly read newspapers on the way in and out of work.
But I do see bias, one way or another, in most of the reports I follow indeed. I try to get some balance on what I read, but that is tricky indeed.

@Charley50 ,

I just don’t think adequate coverage is given to what Hezbollah is doing in Lebanon and that it is effectIvely a state within a state.

They just portray it as those nasty Israelis invading yet another sovereign entity,

Just replying to myself, on the other hand, Emma Barnett just robustly challenged the Lebanese diplomat when he repeatedly said that Hezbollah was acting in self defence, and his audacious statement that Israel started a genocide on.. wait for it.. October 7th! 😡 Thank god she challenged that. Maybe BBC are finally listening to the valid criticism.

@HelenHen ,

‘'Hard to nail them'? Either they're antisemitic or not. Why are you trying to 'nail' people?’

There are a lot of middle class people who are antisemitic but, for some reason, prefer to appear not to be.

Those two journalists have had numerous complaints made against them over decades and, thanks to staunch defence by the BBC’s lawyers, none have stuck.

So what I mean is that I am 99% sure that both of them dislike Israel and possibly Jews, could I prove it in a court of law were I sued for libel? Probably not.

And the same, IMO, is true of the BBC. Of course they are not out and proud about it and have to appear unbiased, they show bias on many issues, including this one.

I don’t think there’s been enough on Hezbollah attacking Israel

I thought it a mistake to read out Hezbollah statement including the word martyr and to use the word ‘towering’ for the ex leader

They are proscribed terrorists

I think it’s in whats not said sometimes, like the fact that Hezbollah is a designated terror group. Sometimes from the coverage you would think that Israel randomly attacked Lebanon. It doesn’t provide enough context, focuses on the actions of Israel which is fine but then the actions of other players need to be acknowledged too. Half the time it seems like Israel went mad and started attacking Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Theres very little acknowledging that Israel was attacked by Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis first.

Even yesterday there was a report that an Israeli strike on Damascus killed three civilians, they weren’t, they were IRCG and one Hezbollah member (Nasrallahs son in law). The chart on number of rockets thrown by Hezbollah and Israel doesn’t make it clear that these are numbers of events (I.e. Israel can fire one rocket and Hezb can fore a thousand in one go and they are counted as 1 event each rather than 1 rocket vs 1000) not numbers of rockets. It gives a distorted impression

I definitely think there is a bias but I’m not sure if it’s just poor reporting or intentional.

The BBC doesn't benefit Israel. This is about media bias.

The problem again here is that it distorts what happened

7th October Hamas attacked Israel
8th October Hezbollah attacked Israel
can’t remember when by Houthis attacked Israel

I mean these were unprovoked, there was a ceasfire in place with Hamas at the time. It’s a simple fact that Israel didn’t start this. Now you can question Netanyahu (i think he’s an extremist) but Israel was attacked first by all these parties.

Fair enough. Examines of how bbc is not unbiased