Andrew Norfolk's continuing coverage in The Times of the case of the five-year-old Christian girl placed into the care of Muslims families by Tower Hamlets Council is now being strongly countered by the BBC News website.
Since the story's initial reporting, the BBC website has posted a video headlined 'My Muslim family fostered kids from different faiths' and featured a full-length article headlined 'My Muslim family and our foster kids' - both based on the same family and both promoting a positive view of Muslim fostering of non-Muslim children. The BBC's purpose in vigorously pushing such a story isn't hard to guess.
Three new articles have been published today following yesterday's ruling that the girl should be removed from the Muslim family now caring for her and placed with her maternal grandmother instead (as reported in this morning's Times): Ruling over 'Muslim foster case' girl; Muslim foster case: The rules and the reality; and 'No concerns' with mixed faith foster case.
The last of those articles - by Martin Bashir and Callum May - is the most remarkable in that it abruptly dismisses The Times's take on the story in its opening paragraph - a statement which to anyone who has read about the story elsewhere might sound uncannily like a 'nothing to see here' kind of statement:
There were no concerns about the welfare of a Christian girl said to have been fostered by a Muslim family, a family court judge has ruled.
And that's that as far as the ruling itself is concerned, despite it seeming to be a very limited take on the judge's ruling compared to other reports - and very different to that of Andrew Norfolk today.
The Bashir/May article - just as the main BBC report this morning did - then spends much of the rest of its time giving the Council's defence while focusing repeatedly of criticism of the newspaper reporting of the story.
It reads like a rebuttal.
According to Mr. Norfolk, however, the judge specifically praised the Times in her ruling (saying it "acted responsibly in raising 'very concerning' matters of 'legitimate public interest'), and, contrary to the BBC report, suggested that the judge did have concerns given that she said that councils should seek "culturally-matched placements" for vulnerable children:
None of those direct quotes appears in those BBC's reports.
The full court order is apparently going to be published. This is absolutely vital here as the BBC's take on what Khatun Sapnara ruled and the Times's take on what she ruled are so wildly different that one media organisation must be grossly misreporting the story, and could even end up being seriously discredited over this.
P.S. Newssniffer shows that the Bashir/May report has been edited, possibly to tone down the impression of editorialising. The first version read:
P.S. Newssniffer shows that the Bashir/May report has been edited, possibly to tone down the impression of editorialising. The first version read:
Contrary to some media reports, the family was English-speaking.The revised version reads:
Contrary to some media reports the council claimed the foster family was English-speaking.
The BBC appear to be acting as their own court in this case and not as inquisitive journalists. They are relying upon material offered to them, and not on what they have found out for themselves. As a result, their 'judgement' has been heavily influenced by the ever-present anti white anti Christian pro Muslim bias of the BBC.
ReplyDeleteAs you say Craig, it will be interesting to read the court's judgement and compare it directly with the BBC's. I can't see this making any headlines on the BBC platforms though.
Latest BBC acronym: Bowing Before Caliphate
ReplyDeleteBoth Breitbart and The International Business Times also quote the judge ordering an urgent investigation into the case from Tower Hamlets council "insisting the press had raised “very concerning” matters of
ReplyDelete“legitimate public interest”. "
I don't think this judge would take that tone if there was no fire under this smoke.
The Guardian, BBC and the Indie leave that bit out. Quelle surprise.
The quote is obviously not a lie or someone would be pointing the lie out. As it is we, again, have lies by omission from the usual suspects.
I also notice the absence of any comment by either Jim Fitzpatrick MP or Rushanara Ali MP. Has anybody heard anything from the reps ?
All quiet on the Eastern front. Move along.
The BBC already is discredited as far as those with eyes to see and ears to hear are concerned - the trouble is that there are not enough of us. What we need now is a government with the courage and determination to tackle the BBC head on, preferably through a public inquiry, and then apply sanctions. Nice idea, but it's not going to happen under Theresa May.
ReplyDeleteInstead of giving any news coverage of Mrs May's apparently successful trip to Japan with in-depth journalistic appraisal, today the news coverage has been about her leadership and what 'Tory MPs have told the BBC' etc.
DeleteIn effect, we, the licence payers are being denied any accurate factual assessment of an important foreign policy initiative, and instead we are being fed yet more opinionated bias.
According to Guido yesterday, there is a power balance shift in the Labour party which might result in the far-left wing of the party taking control of the NEC. Should not the BBC be reporting this - and sounding warnings as to what this might mean?
DeleteAn alt-left takeover of Labour by followers of Lenin and Trotsky whose government engaged in aggressive war, extrajudicial killings and the murder of millions including children? Will the BBC report that? I very much doubt it. They might report on the lack of diversity on display at the UK Tiddlywinks championship, though.
DeleteI can see a return to the 1970s style of Labour Party Conference this autumn, where procedural manoeuvres will stop any dissenting voices, and radical policy is voted through right under the Leader's nose. We know already that the red flag will be flying here. Pienaar and his buddies will be there singing loudly, whilst no doubt taking of both the BBC and the Labour Party hospitality.
DeleteThis is the BBC that didn't know of any arrests or assaults on Police or an acid attack at the Notting Hill Carnival...its report was like something from the DDR on May Day wittering on about the proletariat engaging in joyful celebrations.
ReplyDeleteAnother casual bit of fake news I heard on the BBC yesterday - Radio 4's PM I think it was. Apparently there are more displaced persons arising from the Syria conflict than there were in the whole of WW2? Really? Really??? Think of it - millions fleeing war in France, millions of UK children evacuated, millions fleeing the German invaders in Russia, millions of Jews, Gypsies and others taken to death camps, millions of people drafted into forced labour schemes and taken from their homes, millions of Chinese fleeing the Japanese, millions of Japanese bombed out of their homes, and then millions of Germans being driven out of Eastern Europe as the war ended and soon after. But no, according to the BBC more people have been displaced in Syria. Because that's what they want to be true, and that's what counts.
ReplyDeleteYes. It came about 47 minutes into 'PM' with Carolyn Quinn saying, "The conflict in Syria has displaced more people than the Second World War".
Deletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b092959n
You can read the hearing of the case here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/case-management-order-lbtw-cd-and-ors-20170830.pdf
Thank you.
DeleteAnd then again - who to believe? Just being listening to a piece on radio (Crossing Continents - the crossing all seems to be one way incidentally..maybe "Changing Continents" would be better) all about the struggle of a couple of Somali refugees to gain access to the USA. The arrogance of the brother who managed to get in was amazing - already querying the right of the American people to elect a President of their choosing. And then we were told Somali men were working out down the gym to toughen themselves for forthcoming violence in the USA - is that supposed to be a good sign? The overall mood music of course was PC-celebratory...despite Abdi giving up his "hard" construction job ("it just didn't work out" we were told) to become a "Somali languge translator" for a "charity"...Little evidence about what he was doing there...And of course no context for any concern from Maine residents (portrayed as retarded racists trying to hold back the diversity tide)- e.g. the actions of criminal gangs in London and Malmo and the astonishingly low level of economic activity among Somali communities in Europe (= welfare dependency of one kind or another). Also, strangely for the feminist BBC, the brother who started a family seemed to have an invisible wife...she certainly didn't have a voice and I think might not have actually been mentioned by name. Makes you wonder eh?
ReplyDeleteBBC - Bowing Before the Caliphate...Berating, Bombastic and Credulous.
I just can't believe the non-stop nature of the propaganda now - virtually 24/7 on Radio , Archers included. The only escape is to turn it off, even though we pay for it.
Just to add to the previous post...I did a little research on the internet (something beyond the powers of the £5 billion BBC it seems). This has an eerily familiar ring to it (drugs, guns and a terror connection).
Deletehttp://bangordailynews.com/2014/05/16/news/state/are-there-gangs-in-maine-depends-on-who-you-ask/
News Sniffer and Craig have caught the BBC in a lie, then. This whole thing smacks of the BBC desire to control the narrative. Rather than report fairly and honestly, and simply inform the public, they deliberately chose to make this into an opportunity to 'educate' instead.
ReplyDeleteIt's the same crap we used to hear from 'John Reith' back in the old B-BBC days. Shut up, we're doing everything we can to help Social Cohesion.
So many lies and intentional distortions to choose from on the BBC now each and every day, from the casual to the blatant. That's the thing about lying...once an institution starts on that road it soon gets out of control, since the lode star of veracity is no longer its guide.
DeleteWhat was the lie?
Delete