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| August | 07 |
| 2006 |
The BBC prides itself on its supposedly accurate reporting. When I complain, I am told that my views are 'interpretation'; on the 'facts', the BBC is unimpeachable.
Yeah, right. The BBC has now changed its earlier report on this page. It had, until recently, read like this:
Israeli strike 'kills 40 people'"An Israeli air strike has killed more than 40 people in the southern Lebanese border village of Houla, Lebanon's prime minister has said.
Fouad Siniora told an Arab foreign ministers meeting in Beirut that there had been "a horrific massacre"."
No attempt to point out that this story was, when it was reported, completely unverified.
Guess what actually happened:
Lebanon PM revises air raid toll
"They thought that the whole building smashed on the heads of 40 people," Fouad Siniora told reporters in Beirut. "Thank God that they have been saved."
"An Israeli air strike has killed more than 40 people in the southern Lebanese border village of Houla, Lebanon's prime minister has said. Fouad Siniora told an Arab foreign ministers meeting in Beirut that there had been "a horrific massacre"."
All organisations make mistakes. But isn't it typical that the BBC is always willing, with no verification, to believe the worst when it involves Israel?
MessageSpace
Spot on, Stephen. How they must have wished that the original figures were true.
It's more than that. They posted the new story on exactly the same URL adress as the new corrected story without explanation or attribution. The Israeli strike 'kills 40 people' story was on the main page for hours today.
They don't actually give a toss about the deaths of Lebanese civilians except in so far as such tragic events enable them to justify their hatred of the Jewish state. Within this context, journalists at the BBC, the Guardian and the Independent put me in mind of a bloodthirsty Polish mob psyching itself up for yet another bloody pogrom.