Hamas - BBC To Blame

Our free and fearless press will scrape through the sturdiest barrel, leap from the dirtiest gutter into the filthiest sewer, redefine shamelessness, abandon moral values completely, lie through its teeth, and all the while claim with faux righteousness that it holds the high ground, in order to put the boot in on the hated BBC. Something that the Gaza conflict has illustrated superbly.

Some out there on the right of the press establishment, have taken one look at the bloodshed, the devastation, the flouting of international law, the blood-curdling threats, and the brutal snuffing out of hope, and have decided that this is, where kicking the Beeb is concerned, the hill on which they are prepared to die. And it’s all over the use, or lack of it, of the T-Word.

The BBC does not, as a matter of objectivity and a refusal to take sides, use words like “Terrorist” to describe organisations like Hamas. It did not use that word to describe the Provisional IRA; it limited itself to calling the Nazis “The enemy”. Veteran correspondent John Simpson has laid out the reasoning and the background in an article for the Corporation’s website (HERE).

Predictably, this has cut no ice with the inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker, where today’s Daily Mail has gone Full Dacre as its front page lead thunders “As Charles AND William both condemn Hamas, our national broadcaster is still calling them ‘Militants’ … THE KING CALLS THEM TERRORISTS, WHY CAN’T THE BBC?” Why go why oh why oh why.

The supporting article tells “King Charles last night condemned the ‘barbaric acts of terrorism’ inflicted on Israel. The monarch was backed by the Prince and Princess of Wales, who said they were ‘profoundly distressed’ at the unfolding civilian slaughter, adding: ‘The horrors inflicted by Hamas’s terrorist attack upon Israel are appalling.’” Appalling. Like ghastly Nicholas Witchell.

But do go on. “William and Kate went even further, highlighting the country’s ‘right of self-defence’. The royals’ deliberate use of the word ‘terrorism’ to describe the atrocities came in sharp contrast to the BBC, which refuses to call Hamas a ‘terrorist’ organisation”. So they expressed their opinion. Was there a talking head the Mail could call on for support?

Behold the arbiter of righteousness and decency

Sure was. “It refers to Hamas as a ‘militant’ group and described the slaughter of civilians as a ‘militant’ attack. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis accused broadcasters of trying to ‘wilfully mislead’ by not using the word terrorist, saying: ‘The murder of babies where they sleep is not the act of a “freedom fighter”.’” No-one called Hamas “freedom fighters”, either.

And perhaps there was another of those here today and gone tomorrow politicians ready to take the Biscuit. “A string of high-profile figures, including Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and Labour leader Keir Starmer, yesterday heaped pressure on the BBC over its approach to covering the murder of Israeli civilians. Mr Shapps told LBC that it was ‘verging on disgraceful’, adding: ‘It’s time to get the moral compass out at the BBC.’”.

Grant “Spiv” Shapps (or maybe it was Michael Green and/or Sebastian Fox) says someone else should “get the moral compass out”? As Billy Connolly once said, there’s going tae be some swearing. FUCK OFF. Shapps regularly gives the impression that his moral compass departed many years ago.

And on it goes. “Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer has raised the issue with BBC director-general Tim Davie and made clear her view that these were ‘acts of terror carried out by a terrorist organisation’. The Board of Deputies of British Jews said that by calling Hamas ‘militants’, the BBC ‘not only offers legitimacy to their government, but also denies the fact that they commit atrocities’”.

No. Just no. And what makes this confected outrage worse is where the non-story was incubated. Yes, the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog - no strangers to anti-Semitic hit jobs - started this particular ball rolling at 1051 hours. Plenty of time for an increasingly less well resourced Daily Mail to recycle the story. That’s how desperate the press are.

They even recycled the false baby beheading claim. What a shower.

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