BBC Watch has rightly amplified a pertinent question to the BBC posed by Hillel Neuer on Twitter:
.@BBCNews Why do you regularly interview a man (as a "leading UK Muslim") who believes "Zionists" stole his shoe? pic.twitter.com/Qd5jRbiOME
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) June 14, 2015
Hadar's follow-up comment made me smile:
Mind you, the promotion of crazy conspiracy theories never prevented Abdel Bari Atwan from being a BBC frequent flyer.
How true!
As Hadar notes, lots of media outlets (mainstream and non-mainstream - from the Spectator to the Ha'aretz, from Harry's Place to the Daily Mail) are reporting "leading UK Muslim" (and BBC regular) Asghar Bukhari's astonishing claim that "Zionists" stole his shoe.
Like many others before me, I'll have to preface the following screenshot with a statement: This is not a spoof!
There's no sign of it yet, but hopefully BBC Trending will be on this story soon and making hay with it.
I'm not holding my breath though. The BBC's commitments to social cohesion will probably prevent them even from reporting this, and those invitations will doubtless keep on going out to Mr B.
Many more are now waking up to who seems to have an open door to the BBC's screens, and more than free rein to spout, even when hardly the sharpest tools or most impartial of commentators.
ReplyDeleteMaybe David Dimbleby, expert on how propaganda works in the hands of those prepared to misuse power and with the facilities to do it, could be prevailed upon to explain how this can work?