BBC at it again – The Case of the Elaborate Deception

[Tigers2B1]

I'm sure most of us remember the BBC biggie from last year, the Hutton Report, http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/ and The Case of the Satisfactory Internal Inquiry. That case lead to the "resignations" of two senior BBC executives and BBC reporter, Andrew Gilligan. According to the Hutton Report, BBC's internal inquiry into the accuracy of Gilligan's story consisted of asking him whether the story was accurate - to which he replyed "yes." According to the Report, this was passed on as a 'satisfactory internal inquiry' –

… In his report, Hutton wrote of this:

The Governors should have recognised more fully than they did that their duty to protect the independence of the BBC was not incompatible with giving proper consideration to whether there was validity in the Government's complaints, no matter how strongly worded by Mr Campbell, that the allegations against its integrity reported in Mr Gilligan's broadcasts were unfounded and the Governors failed to give this issue proper consideration.

It was because of the report's criticism of his actions that Davies resigned on the day of publication, January 28. Reporters from rival news organisation ITN described the day of publication as "one of the worst in the BBC's history". Greg Dyke resigned two days after the publication of the report …

Andrew Gilligan resigned because of his part in the affair on January 30, making three BBC resignations in three days…

You would think the trama caused by The Case of the Satisfactory Internal Inquiry– if nothing else, would open some BBC eyeballs. Yet here we are with The Case of the Elaborate Deception –-- the latest BBC overstep (of which I'm aware) -

From ABC NEWS –

BBC World said on Friday that an interview it ran with a man it identified as a spokesman for Dow Chemical Co, in which he said the U.S. company accepted responsibility for India's Bhopal disaster, was wrong and part of an "elaborate deception."

A spokeswoman for Dow Chemical in Switzerland also confirmed that the report was wrong.

The BBC had earlier twice run an interview with a man it identified as Dow Chemical spokesman Jude Finisterra, who said the company accepted full responsibility for the disaster 20 years ago in the central Indian city of Bhopal….

"Dow confirms there was no basis whatsoever for this report," Marina Ashanin said. "We also confirm Jude Finisterra is neither an employee nor a spokesperson for Dow."...

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=299657


It appears that when the BBC used "elaborate deception" in this context, the BBC means they talked to him on the telephone and "Finisterra" (a false name and not one even appearing at Dow) told BBC he represented Dow – nothing more, nothing less -- Not very "elaborate" or "deceptive" as I see this - But again, sloppy or not – BBC has nothing against big muti-national business OR government -

…The problem? Jude Finisterra is indeed a spokesman, but for a guerilla-media group called the Yes Men and his name is probably Andy Bichlbaum. He has absolutely no affiliation with Dow -- and the BBC made no attempt, despite the magnitude of the story, to corroborate his credentials.

Indeed, according to the Washington Post, the BBC said only, and only in a written statement, that it had been contacted by a man who "during a series of phone calls, claimed that there would be a significant announcement to be made on behalf of the Dow Chemical company."

"He gave no further detail until the live interview, broadcast from the BBC's Paris bureau this morning," the BBC said.

In "explaining" the broadcast, the BBC has called that simple ruse an "elaborate deception."…

http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?id=10870&cid=1&cname=Media

I’ll add The Case of the Weeping Reporter upon request.

So ----- right or wrong – there is the perception ‘out there’ that the BBC has a bias to the left --- some hear BBC and think a ‘corporation of Dan Rathers.’ So maybe the BBC ought to allow third parties to decide complaints of bias against the BBC. At present, the BBC is self-policing. Maybe an independent body assigned to oversee the BBC's complaint process and decision making regarding allegations of BBC bias is needed. If this is 'unacceptable' to the BBC, maybe the BBC and tax money should part ways -

 

[Burnsys]

http://www.bbcwatch.com/

 

[Tigers2B1]

http://www.bbcwatch.com/

Thanks Burnsys – that is a website created by two individuals who have collected pretty extensive information which, they propose, indicates BBC bias as it relates to the Middle East and specifically Israel and her enemies. They provide four 'reports' – starting in March 2002 and going forward.

The Israeli government seems to take a position similar to those of the website authors, at least according to this 2003 article –

…Israel has severed ties with the British Broadcasting Corporation to protest what it calls the repeated 'demonization' of the country and today's showing of a documentary on Israel's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons arsenal, according to a report by the London Times.

Israel says interviews with official spokesmen will no longer be made available to BBC staff and visa restrictions will be put in place to force the BBC to rotate its bureau chief every few months. Israel will also no longer cooperate with requests for assistance with restrictions such as military road blocks in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. A discussion is still underway as to whether or not to expel all BBC correspondents.

''The BBC will discover that bureaucracy can be applied with goodwill or without it. And after the way that they have repeatedly tried to delegitimize the state of Israel, we, as hosts, have none left for them,'' Daniel Seaman, director of the government press office, told the Times.

''We see the well-known pro-Arab touch of the Foreign Office and the traditional anti-Semitism of parts of Britain's Establishment in the way they are acting against us, " Seaman added.

The first test comes today when the BBC asks Israeli officials to comment on the weekend visit of U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice who is in the Middle East to talk to Israeli and Palestinian leaders about the 'road map' to peace.

''We decided that we had to draw a red line rather than just complain about a consistent attitude in which successive BBC programs attempt to place us in the same context as totalitarian, axis-of-evil countries such as Iraq and Iran,'' Seaman told the Times.

Seaman says the attitude of the BBC is dangerous to the existence of the state of Israel because it demonizes the Israelis and gives terrorists reasons to attack. He says the sanctions were put in place due to what was seen as an overall BBC attitude towards Israel ''verging on the anti-Semitic."

The final straw was the BBC's promotion of the program ''Israel's Secret Weapon'', first shown in Britain in March….

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33315

 

[the number 42]

Everyone knows the BBC is run from the Kremlin