In this week’s Spectator, I’ve written about the Trusted News Initiative (TNI), the BBC-led consortium that’s trying to cleanse the internet of mis- and disinformation, i.e., an attempt by legacy news media companies to smear independent news publishers as ‘unreliable’ in an effort to stem the exodus of their viewers and readers. As noted by the Daily Sceptic earlier this year, the TNI is embroiled in an antitrust lawsuit with various independent news publishers in the U.S. which is now due to be heard in the District of Columbia. Here’s an extract:
I won’t comment on the merits of the lawsuit, but in the ongoing, titanic struggle between the mainstream media and alt-media, the former has taken quite a beating in the past week or so. I’m thinking of the reputational damage suffered by the BBC and its TNI partners due to their reporting of the explosion at the al-Ahli hospital. Within minutes, they faithfully regurgitated the propaganda of Gaza’s Ministry of Health that the hospital had been razed by an Israeli airstrike, killing several hundred civilians. This, in spite of the fact that the Ministry of Health is run by Hamas.
“The Israeli military has been contacted for comment,” said the BBC’s Jon Donnison in his report from Jerusalem. “But it is hard to see what else this could be, really, given the size of the explosion, other than an Israeli airstrike.” Reuters took the same line, posting on Twitter: “BREAKING: An Israeli air strike killed hundreds of Palestinians at a Gaza City hospital crammed with patients and displaced people, health authorities in the besieged enclave said.” …
We now have good grounds for thinking almost every detail of these reports [as well as the reports of AP, the Washington Post and the New York Times] was wrong. …
In other words, the Gaza hospital story was a textbook example of passing on disinformation: false information intended to mislead.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Official figures show the BBC Today programme has lost around 375,000 weekday listeners since October last year. The Telegraph has more.
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Add to that the BBC’s coverage of the Ukraine War using unfiltered press-releases from the Ukrainian authorities about “atrocities”, the unfiltered reporting of COVID using government sources, the reporting of climate science via the IPCC using only the filter of exaggeration… and you have something of a pattern.
What do you call someone who urges you to trust them against all the evidence?
An abuser.
There have been non-Ukrainian personel in Ukrain who also reported clear evidence of abuse by Russian troops.
That’s beside the point. No serious observer thinks that Russia is blameless in this respect; but it’s the BBC et al who are the focus of concern here, not the combatants.
) like the TNI, ordinary punters have even less less idea than usual of what’s really going on, and assume the worst – ie, that whatever those claiming to be ‘Trusted’ are claiming is the opposite of the truth. Truth is in fact the biggest casualty here.
Besides, the really big problem is that when the legacy media have great ideas (
And we also have the White Helmets used to go into Syria.
Liar.
Yes, the BBC like their stablemates in the public sector are increasingly guilty of lying.
The good thing with the trusted news initiative is when it “fact checks” something, it’s a good indicator of a dodgy story.
Very much like a Bliar recommendation – always to be avoided.
Whatever the BBC and TNI state the opposite is true. It is called propaganda and I am sure the Muslim dollars are hard at work within the BBC ensuring that the Muslim Jihad is rebranded ‘Palestinian freedom’.
21 downticks – must have scored a bullseye.
Jihad means ‘struggle’ by the way. And it’s Gaza being ethnically cleansed. Not London.
I’ve fought BBC misinformation against Israel for over 25 years.
It is deliberate and systematic.
You may find it hard to believe but literally every day, the BBC finds a reason to demonise Israel on its English or Arabic channels.
Just a few of their tactics:
-Use of the phrase ‘Israel says’ questions her veracity, every time
-Applying moral equivalence between a democratic nation and terrorist organisation eg taking Gaza Min of Health death figures without question ((Hamas controlled, same people who beheaded babies)
– according to https://camera-uk.org 98% of all terror incidents in Israel in 2023 have gone unreported by the BBC
-promotion of ‘innocent Palestinians’ falsehood when 50-70% support Hamas and these civilians followed the Hamas operatives through the fence to rape and kidnap Israelis.
-complete suppression of Israel’s Biblical, historical and political claim to this tiny piece of land, same size as Wales. BBC doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of Herod’s Temple, for example.
-deflecting complaints- my FoI request (took a year and I was threatened with legal costs) found a mere 0.014% upheld.
Over many Gaza conflicts, the BBC has deliberately stirred global hatred against Israel by promoting her as land thief, aggressor.
I hold its incitement against Israel partly responsible for the massacre.
Shame on the BBC.
Yes Prof Norman Fenton touches on this in his personal statement here, as he describes the amount of people from the so-called ‘freedom movement’ who have basically backstabbed him and jumped on the anti-Israel bandwagon. I’m surprised at some of the names myself actually; Denis Rancourt, Dr Thomas Binder, even Dr McHonk-Honk. He’s of course Jewish and has lots of family in Israel so I think he’s perfectly justified in sharing his account here;
”Yet, even before Israel responded to the attack and the continued barrage of rockets from Gaza (over 9,000 fired in 14 days), many of those in the ‘Freedom movement’ who have absolutely no connection to Israel or knowledge of the conflict were already proclaiming either that a) the attacks did not actually happen; b) the attacks were a ‘false flag’ inside job (victim blaming); or c) the attacks were justified because of Israel’s ‘oppression’ of the Palestinians. Leading the anti-Israel narrative were inevitably prominent anti-Zionist ‘Jews’ (who act as shield for antisemites to quote).
People who I had previously respected were filling their twitter feeds with the usual lazy narrative of lies about Israel that Karen and I wrote about in our articles. The very people who previously said that no mainstream news media could be trusted to tell the truth were happy to accept without question every ludicrous claim coming from the Hamas media centre in Gaza and other Arab and anti-Israel news agencies.
Since speaking out against the official covid narrative I was ostracised, censored, and vilified. I lost my academic career, as well as people who I previously regarded as friends and colleagues. But set against that was the perception that I had found a far more valued community of like-minded people, committed to freedom and justice. To discover that many of these people proudly sided with genocidal antisemitic terrorists is a bitter pill to swallow. And, many of my previous followers have denounced me.”
https://www.normanfenton.com/post/israel-and-the-freedom-movement-a-personal-statement-by-norman-fenton
Yes, some people from the ‘freedom movement’ on txitter have turned into the very thing they claim to be against – one-sided, taking whatever picture, whatever story, whatever garbage fact check that suits what they are selling.
I suspect there are 2 basic reasons – one is gaining lots of followers, 2 in particular have gained hundreds of thousands within a week. One of them, proclaiming to be a doctor, spends half her time boasting about how many followers she has, how many impressions she has – in between crying about genocide. The second relates to the first – monetization of the situation, the more outrage, the more clicks, the more money. It is quite sickening how these people are so keen to exploit an appalling situation like this.
Norman sees it as anti-Semitism. But this has nothing to do with it. The so-called Freedom movement are wondering why, after 3 years of questioning everything you hear and assuming most is propaganda, Norman, being very emotionally involved and understandably so, is now believing even some of the most questionable aspects of this story and not asking perfectly legitimate questions (which he would have, had it been a different subject) such as why the doors were left open when Egypt security services had warned Israel about an imminent attack and why it took hours to respond when journalists were alerted at 6:30am about an unusually large barrage of rocket fire coming from Gaza tagged ‘URGENT’. Questions should be asked. Scepticism is not anti-Semitism.
So Israel’s veracity must never to be questioned…check…
There is no moral equivalence between Israel, and the ‘rest’…..check
While I have always denounced the attacks on Oct 7th…I haven’t lost my powers of observation, or belief in the truth… the Israeli Government have never confirmed that there is any substance to the ‘40 beheaded babies’ story..even though it gets repeated as truth ad nauseam..
The Gaza Ministry Of Health has an excellent reputation with all the NGO’s and humanitarian agencies within Gaza ….
“We continue to include their data in our reporting and it is clearly sourced,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement to Reuters.”
…in 2006 barely 40% of Gazans voted for Hammas..there wasn’t a great deal of choice either…and in other circumstances why would you believe these are genuine figures if you don’t believe anything else? More than half of Gaza is made up of children who have never voted for Hammas..that means a large majority did not vote for them…
Camera-UK, is an extreme American backed pro-Israeli pressure group, and as such is massively biased…and I suspect both you and it are part of the Christian Zionist movement…
While your beliefs are your own, I’d question that with those sort of extreme views you aren’t really a person who in this instance can be relied upon for a clear-headed or unbiased opinion…and someone who says they are fighting ‘misinformation’ you sure do spread plenty of it about…
Bit paranoid.
BBC 12 months climate lies
BBC ————-British Brainwashing Corporation. ——–And all paid for by us.
Not me.
Well done. —–But it is the public paying for this supposedly “impartial” reporting. When infact they champion every Liberal Progressive cause, but not all of us are Liberal Progressives are we? They are a diabolical disgrace. ——But you know that already.
I wrote my first letter of complaint to the BBC nearly twenty years ago when it became obvious that they were aggressively promoting feminism as the solution to all the world’s ills, without any consideration of the consequences of their propaganda. Other institutions, and the MSM en masse, soon followed their lead. I followed up with dozens of complaints; not always about the same subject, but always asking the same question: have you considered the consequences of your propaganda? Not a single complaint upheld of course. I canceled my license about ten years ago and it was one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done.
My thought process now works like this: Does the BBC support it/they? If the answer is ‘yes’ then I think “Oh. Sh*t. What am I missing”.
Lest we forget Marianna Spring lied on her CV to get on in life.
and kept her job…
The BBC is as impartial and trustworthy as Pravda was. I pay no attention to their propaganda.
I did, however, lodge a complaint about them broadcasting Covid Jab propaganda on the screen whilst Andrew Bridgen was speaking in the Excess Deaths debate. I’m yet to get the standard response that “everything the BBC does is beyond criticism.”
I wrote about my distrust of them recently: https://glitches.substack.com/p/cherrypicking-the-statistics
Whilst I applaud your criticism of the BBC, I think this is not a good example because the facts are still unclear and subject to propaganda from both sides.
There are plenty of topics such as climate and health where there is considerably more clarity.
That’s something both sides will disagree with: Wasn’t it for the propaganda from the other side, the facts would be perfectly clear. OTOH, it actually really doesn’t matter. Provided enough munitions are fired (or bombs dropped)¸ some of them will certainly hit something other than the intended target. It could as well have been a misfiring Hamas rocket as a missomethinging (don’t know a verb for that) Israeli bomb. Both sides are tacitly willing to accept that.
On climate change is totally clear what the BBC are ——–Activists. They point blank refuse to admit the slightest uncertainty on this issue, when in reality the so called science is highly dubious, politicised and riddled with uncertainty.
And OFCOM is supposed to have both sides on issues in any discussion. Now Boris has joined GBN, is there any wonder they are increasingly seen as controlled opposition.
Well Boris did the silly climate thing for sure, but previously he had been with Cameron in calling it all the “Green Crap”. Once you get into government though, no matter who you are, you suddenly find yourself having to comply with the Green Crap. It isn’t easy to be Trump and call it for what it is. But Boris should now do exactly that, and get back the respect of the millions who don’t fall for this eco socialist UN and WEF stich up and War on the West. ——-Also let’s hope GB News does just not morph into SKY NEWS LITE
Since I pay no attention whatsoever to mainstream news – no TV, no radio, no press – my main ways of finding out about what they are reporting is either here, UK Column, TCW, and various Telegram sites by osmosis! I don’t trust the BBC anyway not one bit but then I take everything I hear with a huge pinch of salt. In my book, anyone claiming the truth and the concept of being trusted is immediately suspect. Period.
The issue with the BBC is not simply one of “mis” or “dis” information.
It’s their motivation. They are as someone put it the world’s best funded political party. It’s about what stories they choose to cover, which ones they ignore, and about the information and views they leave out. All carefully crafted to fit a narrative. Most/all news and media organizations have some kind of general political bias, whether it reflects the owners or something else. But with those organizations you know what you are getting. The BBC is publicly funded and meant to be impartial. It must be privatized/destroyed.
“with those organizations you know what you are getting”. And you have the right to unsubscribe or not purchase their content. Unlike the BBC, paid for by a nonnegotiable annual tax if you want to watch any terrestrial programming, not just their biased, white hating, anti British content. It’s a nice little earner.
The BBC tax is actually less bad than the German equivalent. I haven’t paid a TV license fee so far because I really don’t watch TV. In Germany, I would be forced to pay simply because I own devices which could theoretically be used to watch TV. Nowadays, that’s anything connected to the internet because the German state TV organisations chose make their content available there.
But is there a State broadcaster in Germany who operates in the same way as in the UK that forces people to pay? I have heard of Channel One and ARDE etc, but is it like here in the UK or is there a difference?
It’s complicated!
[We’re dealing with Germany, after all]
Before there was a post-1945 German republic, individual German states had been created by the occupying powers with more or less complete disregard for existing German states. These states had inherited public broadcasting services from the Reich which now became decentralised. In 1950, all these state- or region-based public broadcasters formed a joint organisation to coordinate their public activies, primarily, to introduce a nation-wide (someone using the word nation-wide in Germany would strongly be suspected to be a really extreme extreme far-rightist) TV programme. This became the ARD (consortium of public broadcasters in Germany). Unfortunately, being public, the ARD soon became so impartial the CDU-government of 1963 initiated the creation of a second public broadcaster in order to have a news service less stuffed with members of the party it was principally opposed to (in those days, CDU were the church-people and they stood in strict opposition to the socialists from the SPD). This became the ZDF (Zweites deutsches Fernsehen, second German TV programme).
This means there are 9 region- or state-based public broadcasters in Germany plus one international one (Deutsche Welle). These ten together run a nation-wide TV programme and then, there’s another public broadcaster running another nation-wide TV programme, all financed via special-purpose taxes masked as membership fees. Nowdays, they’re also all on the forefront of The Great Awokening™ and do stuff like producing children’s series about elementary school/ kindergarten age boys who are really girls and stuff like that.
Thanks for that. ——I spent time in Germany in the 80’s. I worked in many places. Soest, Trier, Monchengladbach, Kassel, Bad Kissingen, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Munich etc etc. It was a big thrill to visit the old Olympic Stadium where Beckenbauer, Muller, Breitner etc won the World Cup in 1974. I had always been very impressed by the way Germany became a huge economic success after the war, and loved the cleanliness of the country and how civilised it was. So I was very surprised in the 2000’s when they started their Energiewende, and their mass immigration disaster. I could not and still cannot believe how the oh so efficient Germans could succumb to this. ——-It seems that along with these bad political decisions, their football team has also declined in parallel. ————-Danke noch einmal
I don’t pay mine because I throw their threatening letters in the bin!
If the BBC wanted to be trusted they should report that there are people who disagree with the establishment narrative and then give detailed rebuttals to those arguments. Far from building trust by denying dissenters the ‘oxygen of publicity’ they’re driving people away with their monochrome, one-sided reporting.
It *was* an Israeli strike, ( many visual and circumstantial proofs available if care to look/read, see Caitlin Johnstone and Moon of Alabama among others for refs/links to data ).
I am now cancelling my £5/mth subscription as I really don’t want to contribute to/support a site which is disseminating propaganda.
I appreciate the climate change content, and some of the woke and gender sceptic material, and am still grateful to the site for its amazing coverage of the covid-scam, ( so wonderfully sceptical of lockdowns, masks, tests, and to some extent of the vax, etc ), but am not prepared to back a site which is otherwise not sceptical at all, ie swallows lies being spread to cover up/distract from or “excuse” war-crimes, apartheid, genocide, etc, whichever side is responsible for them.
( and which lack of intellectual/journalistic rigour began last year with the events in Ukraine ).
Yes, the absence of scepticism re the hospital is disturbing. Almost as though on this site, all utterences from the Israeli military are sacrosanct.
The fact that large parts of Gaza are being turned to rubble by Israeli missiles/bombs seems to be ignored or declared wholly justifiable.
Gaza says 7,000 have died as a result (and counting). Many thosands of children will be in that figure and many survivors traumatised for life.
Hamas and the US are achieving their objective – stop Israel normalising relations with major Arab players in theregion.
The slaughter of innocents by both sides is criminal.
I agree with you but am willing to stay to give the opposing view regardless of how many down ticks.
Good for you. I think that’s better than the site becoming a complete echo chamber.
I am still on the fence re the Israel situation. Apart from the fact that the Israelis – Netanyahu – deliberately allowed the initial attack I don’t know who to believe.
The only thing that matters is that the killing stops.
Yes I would agree and am also on the fence.
That seems to be the position of UKC but Vanessa Beyley seems so pro Palestine that she hardly acknowledged the brutal killings of Oct 7th.
If it were an Israeli strike, they did a poor job. Half a dozen cars burnt, debt in the car park, a few roof tiles lifte – all buildings intact, even the windows.
They should ask for a refund on the munitions they used.
No don’t do it..it leaves the rest of us poor buggers depleted and ‘exposed’…!!
Take some time off..even have a month, but don’t give up….I have had a couple of days here and there, and I intend to have more, as I agree this particular agenda is getting difficult to deal with, vis a vis mainly the lack of balanced articles…
Justice is blindfolded and carrying scales for exactly the reason that emotions have no part to play in analysis of political problems, while, of course, you still have to remember real people are being discussed…there’s a problem with that at the moment, with this subject and the DS….
I took so long writing my comment..I kept getting interrupted … that I thought mine was going to be a lone comment..it makes it a hell of a lot better to know I am not alone….
Agree absolutely that there is a sad lack of intellectual rigour concerning Ukraine, and that has a lot to do with Toby’s desire to remain ‘broadly acceptable to the mainstream’ and Ian Rons’ position within the FSU. I find it unacceptable, but persevere with my £5 for the time being as there is still much that is good and useful within this site. However, I support your position and have upticked you. I’m… reviewing, the situation……
The BBC got it right this time.
The hospital “was” hit by Israel.
The main stream media are mostly nothing more than lies and propaganda for the establishment and global elite.
Alternative media, when you find a trusted source (not just confirmation bias), is much more reliable.
Unfortunately, The Daily Sceptic, in their Toby articles about Palestinians and Ian Rons articles about Ukraine are far from “sceptical” and just parrot the official line.
Well, I feel like a lone voice here..but it’s only my opinion so what the hell…?
I’m assuming that this is the BBC article that is being referred to? …..as I don’t subscribe to the Spectator, this is the link….
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67216929
Having read it I can only assume that Toby is angry that the BBC aren’t endorsing the ‘official’ story enough…? …..and is unhappy that they mention that there are other differing analysis..?
Although all of this information is very freely available….
I haven’t read any evidence that clearly shows definitively who’s bomb hit the hospital, and I would be interested to know what his ‘good grounds’ are for his surety on the matter….perhaps he could share?
Or is it simply that it should be enough for us all, as it is for him, that Israel have said so?
This is what the New York Times actually said in their analysis…
“The New York Times finding does not answer what actually did cause the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital blast, or who is responsible. The contention by Israeli and American intelligence agencies that a failed Palestinian rocket launch is to blame remains plausible. But the Times analysis does cast doubt on one of the most publicized pieces of evidence that Israeli officials have used to make their case and complicates the straightforward narrative they have put forth.” Several other analyses concur…
As far as I can see, and feel free to jump in if I’m mistaken, the only way to actually find out for sure would be for some independent analysts to go to the scene and investigate possibly under some International banner….it doesn’t help that Israel has bombed several UN buildings and basically banned them from Israel….so it couldn’t be under their auspices….and in the current situation it isn’t likely to happen anyway..
I might be wrong, but It’s getting sadder to me by the day … that ‘no information’ or ‘conflicting information’..is being bandied about in this space as de-facto mis-information…when all it appears to be is information that they don’t like, and which doesn’t help to support the current DS agenda…..?
Just maybe Hamas would have a problem with UN inspectors, they could end up dead in the fog of war!
Well of course, as I said either could be true so I don’t think we will ever really know…that’s entirely the point missing in the main article…
Misinformation/disinformation: truth, fact, challenge, analysis which exposes the lies propagated by Governments, bureaucracies, other organisations, vested interests and their acolytes and media mouthpieces.
Quite a lot of material to work on.
Just got this in reply to my complaint about the BBC festooning the coverage of Bridgen’s vaxx debate with pro-vaxx propaganda. I will be following up. Seems like they got a lot of complaints judging by their reference to a non-personalised response.
My main point will be regarding their use of “due impartiality” as a defence. So every time they cover a debate in parliament, whoever speaks, they will put opposing views on the screen? Isn’t the point of parliament that the MPs debate and express opposing views? Impartiality would be showing the debate unedited.
Dear Mr Tof
Thank you for getting in touch about the House of Commons Adjournment Debate ‘Trends in Excess Deaths’, broadcast on BBC Parliament on 20 October.
To allow us to reply promptly to your concerns, and to ensure we use our licence fee resources as efficiently as possible, we are sending this response to everyone. We are sorry not to reply individually, but we hope this will address the points you have raised.
It is normal practice for BBC Parliament to show what are known as ‘story astons’ (or captions) which put debates into context for viewers. They are not comments, but editorial context written by journalists working on the live output.
The first aston made clear to viewers that Reclaim MP Andrew Bridgen had tabled the debate.
In accordance with the BBC’s guidelines on due impartiality, the remaining astons reflected (and are attributed to) the majority medical and scientific view that vaccines are safe.
We’re sorry if you remain unhappy. We have included your points in our overnight report. These reports are among the most widely read sources of feedback at the BBC, and help inform our future editorial judgements.
Thanks again for getting in touch.
Kind regards,
BBC Complaints Team
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints
Just the usual management/bullshit reply which they ALWAYS give. Wait until you get to their next level of response!
I first complained about 2.5 years ago re the fearporn they’d spread and their enthusiasm for the palpably dangerous “vaccines”.
Told them they would have blood on their hands.
Which they and the rest of the MSM have, in spades…And they’re still at it, but then againn they’re just a RPTB propaganda machine – with zero responsibility/comeback. Yet.
But we’ve got to keep at the bastards.
There is a good article in The Light paper about NLP (neuro linguistic programming) The guy in the article actually trained MPs in NLP but little did he know how it would be used in 2020.
To be fair, Netanyahu’s chief advisor also tweeted that IDF had targeted the hospital – so are we to believe or not to believe him. No comments on the 40 beheaded babies story being a fake, after even Biden and CNN had to back track. Here’s: @sarasidnerCNN
‘I would argue we were mislead. I am going to report on what heads of governments say. That is what new orgs do. It doesn’t mean it’s true but it’s news.’
And why argue over one hospital. 143 health facilities, 29,000 homes, 2,781 children, 70 ambulances, 158 schools…it’s a genocide of ethnic cleansing and will be a stain on our souls for decades. The same people who now stand by would have been the same who stood by during the Holocaust, the same who voted for mandatory jabs. It’s an attitude of mind. Biden (and Sunak) are not fit for office. They are not fit for humanity. Israel has a right to defend itself, but it didn’t, which is why 500,000 protest in Tel Aviv shouting ‘Bibi is a murderer’. When will the blood sacrifice of Gazans be enough?
I, for one, automatically default to not trusting anything the BBC says. The TNI just reinforces this view. In fact, after the covid scam, how anyone could trust the BBC and msm on anything is beyond me.