A new BBC video about antisemitism

 

The most-watched video on the BBC News website this morning is a thoughtful piece by Jewish BBC reporter Tom Brada headlined Anti-Semitism: 2021 likely to be 'the worst year on record'. Oddly, the BBC is promoting it on Twitter under a different headline  - one with a question mark, British, Jewish: Is Anti-Semitism on the Rise? The report is interesting and timely, though it doesn't tackle the question of who is behind the rise in antisemitism and, curiously, tackles the subject of 'Israel and antisemitism in the UK' through a single voice: a Jewish critic of Israel. 

Europe's Disaster Week | BBC Outside Source

Here's a representative tweet of a common reaction hereabouts today:

Brace yourself. This is truly remarkable. The BBC says something negative about the EU.  

I've not seen anything remotely close to this from the BBC before.  

I would also like to be the first to wish Ros Atkins well in his new career.

 And here's what provoked it: 

Well done Ros!

The Story of a Label

Of course, Nick Bryant wasn't the only BBC bod to brand President Trump's "go back...then come back" tweets as "racist". 

Here's Gary O'Donoghue on BBC One's News at Six on Friday:

But of course, Boris Johnson criticised those racist tweets earlier in the week...

And here's Mark Urban on Thursday's Newsnight:

After racist tweets suggesting four American congresswomen go home - three of them were born in the US - the President set his sights at a rally last night on the one who wasn't, Somali-born Ilhan Omar.  

And here's Ros Atkins on Thursday's Outside Source:

...57% of Republicans agreed with the sentiment in those racist tweets at the weekend that the Congresswomen should go back to the countries "from which they came".

 And here's David Willis on the BBC News Channel on Thursday: 

...there were chants at times of "send her back", which is an echo of those remarks, those racist remarks Donald Trump made on Twitter, and that is, of course, disconcerting.

And here's the newsreader on Thursday's The Briefing:

Some Democrats had been hoping to capitalise on the growing criticism of Mr Trump for his racist comments about four ethnic minority Congresswomen. 

And here's the newsreader on the BBC News Channel's overnight BBC World programme:

Mr Trump also returned to the four Congresswomen - the subject of his racist tweets earlier this week.

 And here's Katty Kay on Wednesday's Beyond 100 Days:

You're watching Beyond 100 Days. Democrats are about to vote on whether to impeach Donald Trump because of his racist tweets. 

Wednesday's Business Briefing saw Sally Bundock (of Tim Martin of Wetherspoons fame) reading the following headline (which appeared in the same terms on all the BBC's overnight news bulletins, several times each hour):

In Washington, the House of Representatives has voted to condemn President Trump's racist tweets. 

Ros was back in action on Tuesday's Outside Source:

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is preparing to condemn his earlier racist tweets.

And here's Christian Fraser on Tuesday's Beyond 100 Days:

President Trump lashes out again at minority lawmakers as the House prepares to condemn his racist tweets. 

Sally was also on Tuesday's Business Briefing reading this (again echoing BBC newsreaders throughout that night on the BBC):

This is The Briefing, I'm Sally Bundock. Our top story: President Trump refuses to back down from his racist tweets attacking four American congresswomen of colour. 

The first instance I heard, as we're going back chronologically, was Emily Maitlis on Monday's Newsnight:

Someone's demob happy. And today, Theresa May called out Donald Trump's racist tweet as completely unacceptable. 

But Ros Atkins on Outside Source was doing it already earlier that evening:

President Trump is pushing back over criticisms of his racist remarks about Democrats. 

And Katty and Christian on Monday's Beyond 100 Days were leading the way:

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, one of President Donald Trump's strongest allies on Capitol Hill, declined to condemn the President over his racist tweets.

And, of course, that evening's BBC One News at Six saw Nick Bryant kick it all off:

Donald Trump was at a 'Made in the USA' business event at the White House today, showcasing the kind of economic nationalism that has become a hallmark of his America First presidency. But it's his white nationalism that's caused the latest political storm, a racist Twitter attack aimed at four women of colour, three of whom were born in the USA. 

As far as I can see, that was the first instance of it. 

So, sometime on Monday evening, four BBC TV programmes - BBC News at Six, Beyond 100 Days, Outside Source and Newsnight - chose to nail their colours to the mast and brand Donald Trump's tweets "racist". 

Coincidence? A senior editorial decision? BBC Groupthink?

Whatever, the BBC is well and truly off the leash now, 'impartiality'-wise.

"Whether this happened or not..."

Here's another transcript, just for all of you Katty Kay fans (and I know there are legions of you out there). It comes from the BBC News Channel's Outside Source.

I've highlighted in bold some of the choicer passages. The way Katty and, indeed, Ros drop in those little sops to impartiality whilst being anything but impartial and immediately contradicting themselves is almost...almost...worthy of grudging admiration (especially if you're into Machiavelli).

Ros Atkins: And Katty, even if the Republicans do take Brett Kavanaugh's side of the story, does his demeanour have any bearing on their decision? Because a lot of people have been watching this and thinking, this man's not calm, this man is not reflective as you might expect a judge to be, and he certainly is not nonpartisan. 

Katty Kay: So, in 1991, Clarence Thomas was accused of sexual harassment by Anita Ford (sic). She gave her testimony and was seen to be very credible. He then came back after her testimony, fighting and very defiantly. He called it a high-tech lynching. He was absolutely furious and angry and he was then confirmed to the Supreme Court. He still sits on the Supreme Court's 27 years later. So it's quite possible...there's a precedent here for a judge to come out and be angry like this, to be emotional like this and still be confirmed to the Supreme Court. We've heard it happen before. The partisan site is interesting because Clarence Thomas did not take on Democrats and the left in the way that Brett Kavanaugh has done during the course of this hearing. I don't think, however, that that will mean that you will have Republicans suddenly saying, oh dear, he's too partisan, we can't vote to confirm him. 

Ros Atkins: Now Katty, on the Outside Source screen I've just put up the picture here from the hearing that the New Yorker tweeted out showing the view that Christine Blasey Ford was facing - a raft of white older men - and you and lots of women around the world watching her testimony commented on how the whole experience was profoundly uncomfortable, regardless of whether you believe her story or Brett Kavanaugh's. 

Katty Kay: Yeah, I think there would have been a lot of women who listened to the account she gave...and you just played it there. That's I think the fifth time I've heard it, and it's hard to listen to, Ros, frankly, every single time. And I think there will have been women who have been the victims of sexual abuse who will have listened to that and felt a certain amount of PTSD. Whether this happened or not, and we may never know what happened or did not happen in that room, whether this happened or not, her account was very compelling, it was very emotional. I had read the testimony beforehand but it was a punch in the gut to hear it. To hear her deliver it was very powerful and it will have had a big impact on women who've been through similar things.