As far at the 'Catholic schoolboys v the Native American Vietnam veteran' reporting disaster goes, it just gets worse and worse.
On top of everything else, The Washington Post has now had to issue a correction on another point:
Earlier versions of this story incorrectly said that Native American activist Nathan Phillips fought in the Vietnam War. Phillips served in the U.S. Marines from 1972 to 1976 but was never deployed to Vietnam
The BBC, which I suspected of largely copying-and-pasting their largely-wrong version of the story from like-minded papers like The Washington Post (plus CNN and Twitter), has been sticking with its original, largely-false narrative, long after it's been discredited (see earlier post and comments).
And now this!
Yes, the BBC News website continues to wrongly say:
And now this!
Yes, the BBC News website continues to wrongly say:
The quality of the BBC's reporting here just seems to sink lower and lower.
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DB meanwhile has been tackling the BBC's finest on Twitter about this. Jon Sopel actually replied, if only to do the 'it's nothing to do with me, guv' thing:
DB: The noble Native American not only lied about his interaction with the Covington boys, he lied about being in Vietnam. Looking forward to the BBC's report exposing his lies (won't hold my breath).Jon Sopel: If I didn’t report it, why would I need to correct it?DB: The BBC report still says "Mr Phillips - a Vietnam War veteran". That's not true. You are BBC North America Editor. What does that title actually mean if you don't take responsibility for what's written on the BBC US page?
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I wasn't holding my breath that Mike Wendling & Co. at BBC Trending would chronicle the whole fiasco, which began with mainstream media outlets seizing on an edited, context-free video which went viral (like the plague) on social media.
A perfect BBC Trending story, you'd think.
And it appears to be good thing that I didn't hold my breath, because they don't seem to be touching it with BBC-sized £3.8 billion barge pole.
What a surprise (not)! BBC Trending are very selective in the 'viral' stories they choose to report.
Considering all the fuss over the so-called humiliation of a certain shadow cabinet minister on QT, one would have thought that the BBC would have wanted to jump to the defence a young teenage boy who has been unjustly named and vilified all over social media. Not their kind of victim?
ReplyDeleteI have watched that clip several times and it is quite clear that the poor kid is just standing there with all the awkwardness of youth not knowing what to do other than smile.
Jon Sopel is merely continuing to do his job and serve his bosses.
ReplyDeleteCos although the subtitle is "BBCNorth America Editor"
His real main title is "PR guy for US Democrat Party"
... anybody seen any evidence against that ?