The BBC has not responded to accusations of spreading fake news in its podcast Marianna in Conspiracyland. Carl Benjamin, aka Sargon of Akkad and host of the Lotus Eaters podcast, has accused the BBC’s Marianna Spring of spreading false claims about his YouTube channel and alleged “radical activities” in Totnes. Breitbart has the story.
In the very first instalment of BBC Radio 4’s Marianna in Conspiracyland podcast, which detailed the supposed radicalisation of people in the sleepy town of Totnes in Western England, Spring falsely claimed that Benjamin’s YouTube channel Sargon of Akkad is currently suspended by the platform. Although the British conservative political commentator is currently more active on his Lotus Eaters channel, his original YouTube channel is not suspended and is still occasionally used by Benjamin. The channel was reportedly demonetised by YouTube in 2019.
Spring then claimed that Mr. Benjamin had travelled to Totnes as a part of his campaign for the European Parliament in 2019 with former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos. Although Yiannopoulos did appear with Benjamin in the town of Truro during the campaign, a four-hour live stream of the event in Totnes filmed by Benjamin does not show Yiannopoulos at the event in question.
The BBC’s disinformation correspondent went on to interview a Green Party councillor in Totnes, Georgina Allen, who claimed that “a year after the pandemic” Mr. Benjamin returned to Totnes, at which point, she claims, half of the people who previously protested against him during his UKIP campaign “were now with him because they had been recruited into his way of thinking”.
However, Mr. Benjamin firmly denies that he has ever returned to Totnes and there does not appear to be any corroborating evidence online of him making a second appearance in the small town.
The former UKIP candidate also denied allegations made by Spring that he had made “rape threats”, which as he noted on his Lotus Eaters podcast this week, is a criminal offence in England and therefore would have resulted in criminal charges if police determined that he had made such a threat.
It is likely that Spring was referencing a controversial joke made by Benjamin about Labour MP Jess Phillips, whom he said he “wouldn’t even rape”. Tactless as the joke may have been, there was a police investigation and no charges were ever brought forward.
Benjamin also refuted claims made by the BBC Verify correspondent of “engagement with white supremacists”, an assertion which she did not support with evidence in her podcast.
The Lotus Eaters host said that in response to the alleged disinformation spread about him, he had filed complaints with broadcasting regulator Ofcom and the BBC.
If you’re going to set yourself up as the scourge of online ‘mis-’ and ‘disinformation’ it’s important to get your facts right.
Worth reading in full.
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