Open letter to the BBC
Applying a 'rule' in only one case is bigotry
The BBC has censured its own presenter for daring to say something true.
As I explain in Episode 75 of They Stand Corrected, the corporation says its presenter violated “guidelines” by referring to Hamas as what it is: a terror group. However, people across the BBC refer to other groups as terror groups with impunity.
Below is my open letter to the BBC. Feel free to share it with everyone you know; send it to the BBC at feedback@bbc.co.uk; post it on social media, etc. And here’s a poll you can vote in:
To the BBC,
You have censured your own presenter for daring to state a fact during a broadcast in June: that Hamas is a terror group. Your explanation is that this term should be used only when attributed to others.
Meanwhile, as I’ve explained on my fact checking podcast They Stand Corrected (Episode 75), here are just a few quotes from the BBC in July:
In discussing the Islamic State: “The Somali branch is a key logistical and financial hub for the terror group.”
Later in that same broadcast: “How serious would you say the threat is of the Islamic State, and other terror groups in Ethiopia and in the region?”
“I think for many Nigerians, his biggest legacy will probably be reducing the level of insecurity in northeastern Nigeria, where the terrorist group Boko Haram has been waging an insurgency for decades now.”
“Three men have been found guilty of carrying out an arson attack on a warehouse in east London for the Russian based terrorist group Wagner.”
Have any of these BBC figures been censured? Of course not.
Your double standard on this has been raging for years. As I reported in Episode 2, your executives always attempt to argue that they’re simply enforcing policy. But the reality is clear: You only take action to ban the term in BBC’s own voice when the terror group primarily targets Jews.
This is not an opinion, theory, or perspective. It’s a fact. And it is, by definition, antisemitic.
The BBC also has no problem calling homegrown right-wing terrorist groups what they are. There are far too many examples to count, but you may want to go back and look at the many BBC reports about Andrew Dimmock who, according to the BBC, “went on to set up and lead two neo-Nazi terrorist groups that both had to be banned as a threat to national security.”
Please contact me immediately to let me know the precise steps you are taking to censure any and all BBC figures who have called any and all other terror groups what they are.
This obvious failing is yet another scandal for the already disastrous BBC. Please know that I am sharing this open letter with leaders of the British government. Your public charter bans the exact kind of bigotry you engage in on a daily basis.
Josh Levs
Host, They Stand Corrected
P.S. While you’re at it, do something about this:
