Tim Davie “Must Go” After Damning BBC Gaza Report
BBC Director General Tim Davie is facing calls to resign after a damning review found the corporation’s controversial Gaza documentary breached editorial guidelines on accuracy. The Telegraph has more.
The BBC Director General was forced to apologise on Monday after a review into Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone criticised the corporation for failing to disclose the narrator was the son of a Hamas official.
The documentary was shelved earlier this year after it emerged a major contributor was Abdullah Alyazouri, the 14 year-old son of Ayman Alyazouri, a Hamas minister.
The review said Hoyo Films, the independent production company, bore most of the responsibility for the failure, but that the BBC was also responsible and the use of the teenage narrator was “not appropriate”.
Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “If the BBC were an accountable organisation, senior executives would be scrambling to save their jobs.
“Instead, it’s the usual weasel pledge to ‘update some guidelines’. This is appalling.
“Under Director General Tim Davie the BBC has gone from national treasure to national embarrassment. He needs to go.”
Danny Cohen, former director of BBC Television, added: “This looks like a classic case of ‘deputy heads must roll’ and that is nowhere near good enough.”
Writing in the Telegraph, Cohen asks why the BBC has “repeatedly relied on reporting by people in [Gaza] whose Jew-hate is disturbingly clear from a cursory look at their social media”, saying it indicates an institutional blindness to antisemitism. Here’s an excerpt.
I understand that BBC News’ executives were extremely proud of the film before it was broadcast and spoke of it glowingly in internal meetings. Yet anyone who saw it, particularly from within the television industry, will have been alarmed by any number of red flags that brought its credibility and accuracy into question. Those obvious flaws escaped the scrutiny of senior executives who saw the film before transmission, including the CEO of BBC News Deborah Turness.
Further questions should now be asked about the BBC’s handling of this programme and its implications for the corporation’s broader coverage of Gaza.
Can we trust the sources the BBC uses in Gaza to report accurately, fairly and without bias? What pressure do reporters face from the terrorists of Hamas when preparing their reports? There is ample evidence of the threats and violence suffered by journalists in Gaza who have attempted to stand up to this genocidal regime. Yet this is never transparently addressed by the corporation in its coverage.
Perhaps most troublingly of all, why has the BBC repeatedly relied on reporting by people in the region whose Jew-hate is disturbingly clear from a cursory look at their social media?
What must be understood is that the debacle of this documentary is not an isolated incident. It forms part of a consistent pattern of systemic bias at the BBC when it comes to Israel. It is symptomatic of a repeated institutional blindness to hatred of Jews both in the BBC’s output and its treatment of Jewish employees.
Both the news report and Cohen’s op-ed are worth reading in full.
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I wonder how the BBC still exists with their numerous flagrant breaches of their Legal Charter for impartiality. And it is a legal Charter, which means they break the law every time (including holding secret meetings to discuss how they’ll do it, and spending tens of thousands on lawyers trying to defend it).
Oh, the outrage. One might begin to suspect that the DS is so ingrained in their absolute and unflinching support of the same side the MSM supports, that it absolutely can’t possibly fathom or grasp the concept that the side that they and the MSM is against may just, perhaps, possibly, be victims of a genocide?. Absolutely out of the question.
As I’ve said many times on here, you’re wasting your time trying to open otherwise critical thinking eyes on here when it comes to Israel’s continuing “Genocide”.
Call it what you will but the IDF have killed at least 60,000 Palestinians – but it’s not Genocide. Lol. The figure may well be over half a million. Let that sink in.
Sadly they’ve been brainwashed by 100 years plus of Israeli propaganda.
Moderator here: Israel only came into existence in 1948, which is 77 years ago
The only casualty figures come from Jew hating Hamas. Only people who are totally blinded by their hatred of Israel think they’re a reliable unbiased source of information. It’s the same with all the atrocities commenters on msn accuse the IDF of, some have been claimed by Hamas others have just been invented by woke lefties in this country, there’s no videos of any of them.
What about this video, “Israeli Soldiers SICKENING War Crimes EXPOSED” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEo813rYm8g)?
But carry on living in the world you believe in, it is far more pleasant than mine!
I don’t really know this Davie fellow but I loathe the BBC and everything they seem to stand for, but Davie going won’t solve much. The BBC is the world’s best funded left wing political campaigning organisation, and the state has no business owning or funding media empires.
hear hear. What’s worse is that if we want to listen to broadcast TV, we are forced to pay for it or face the threat of jail. Archaic, unfair and nonsensical.
Cancel your TV licence and watch programs online. I’ve done this and am confident no one can prove I’m doing it and prosecute me. As far as I know you don’t have to let investigators into your home, if they actually knock on people’s doors, if you do and they see a TV just say you use it for gaming or streaming.
I have come to the same conclusion.
There is nothing you can do about the BBC.
It is, as you say, a left wing organization.
I cannot remember a single example in the last decade at least when the BBC deviated from the left wing narrative:
Brexit: unmitigated bad decision,
Covid: mortal danger.
Lockdowns: sooner, harder, longer.
Vaccines: safe and effective.
Climate change: lethal.
Net zero: wonderful.
Mass migration: wonderful.
Racism: only white people do it,
Colonialism: all bad,
Men: despicable, hopeless, toxic.
Women: feisty, wonderful.
Islam: wonderful. Religion of peace.
Terrorism: only right wing extremists.
Family: oppressive, patriarchal,
Nation state: racist,
Religion: sinister, stupid.
I challenge everyone to give me a counter example when they deviated from the above.
I cannot rise to your challenge.
I got this once from a BBC employee, sums up how they think:
“Of course those who believe in conspiracy theories are not going to call their beliefs conspiracy theories, and are going to call themselves mainstream, moderate people.
We viewed footage of the speakers and spoke to people who were there.
We have no obligation to give a platform to erroneous ideas. We don’t, to take an extreme example, broadcast the manifestos of mass murderers alongside police statements so that people can “make up their own minds”.
I’m not saying the people there were violent. Some of them were (as the story reflected) were drawn by legitimate concerns. But the speakers (Mr Icke and others) were not expressing mainstream views that would benefit from airing and debate.“
As if France needs any more Jihadis. And if France is getting them, who do you think will be coming across on the dinghies? ”One of the things that the people who insist that Israel must embrace the residents of Gaza and the West Bank assiduously ignore is that none of the surrounding Arab Muslim countries will admit these same people. After all, it would seem like a natural fit of culture and faith. The open secret is that people from Gaza and the West Bank are not just disruptive but destructive. They will try to undermine any country in which they get a foothold. They are an amalgam of the worst energy of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian Mullahs, jihadist revolutionaries who dream of glorious societal destruction from which will emerge either a global caliphate or the missing Imam or both. However, no one told France’s National Court of Asylum (“CNDA”) about this reality. That’s the only reason I can find for why the CNDA opened France’s door to Gaza’s population, ensuring that Islamic radicalism will integrate completely into (and, inevitably, take over) a nuclear-armed Europe. Just a few months ago, despite pressure from Donald Trump, Saudi Arabia,… Read more »
Trump and his idea of a Gazan Riviera is totally sick. Palestinians are a proud people and their home is Palestine; they have no desire to become a foreigner living in another country, dependent on that country’s support.
As you well know (and as explained in your “refused entry to Gaza citizens” report), the surrounding countries completely reject Trump’s and Netanyahu’s desire to relocate all Palestinians outside Israel, so as to fulfil Netanyahu’s idea of a Greater Israel “from the river to the sea”.
It may be the case that Arab leaders are, shall we say, flexible and always desirous of good relations with USA, but there is no question that their populations are on the brink of revolution because of Israel’s atrocities.
Alastair Crooke explains in this video how utterly disastrous Trump’s policies have become, especially since attacking Iran, and how they have created a totally unstable situation in the whole area.
And disruptive, destructive, bloodthirsty radicals: are you referring to the IDF? Stone-cold revolutionary jihadi killers: there you must be referring to Al Jolani and his crew, currently murdering all over Syria, and awarded £95 million for their efforts by our own David Lammy.
”Usually, I don’t waste my time replying to people who’ve never opened a history book, let alone lived the consequences of the policies they smugly critique from the comfort of a Western suburb. But today, let me educate you – just once. In 1948, five Arab armies went to war – not because we hated Jews, but because we believed Palestinians deserved dignity, land, and a future. We lost. Not because our soldiers were cowards – they fought bravely and many died – but because we were divided, disorganized, and underestimated what we were up against. And then, in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, 850,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries – Jews who had lived with us for centuries. We paid that price. We thought we were helping. Instead, they helped Israel build one of the most formidable societies and militaries in the region. Half of Israeli society today is made of people we expelled. We kept going. We supported Jordan and Egypt. We held Al-Aqsa, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. But then Arab nationalism reared its head. Nasser made promises he couldn’t keep, mobilized his army thinking the UN or the Soviets would bail him out.… Read more »
Terrorism. Hijacked planes. Bombed embassies. Our diplomats killed. Our airlines targeted. All by factions claiming to represent the Palestinian cause. The PLO tried to take over Jordan – sparked a bloody civil war. Then they did the same in Lebanon. Two countries pushed into chaos because we gave sanctuary to Palestinian leaders who repaid it by trying to overthrow their hosts. And even after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 – Palestinians living in Kuwait, over 400,000 of them – many sided with the invader. Helped him hunt Kuwaiti officers. Betrayed the nation that fed and housed them for decades. Still, billions flowed from our treasuries. Billions. From the Gulf to the PLO, to Hamas, to UNRWA. We propped up their governments, funded their schools, paid for their hospitals – while watching their leaders grow fat on corruption. And despite everything – we backed Arafat at Oslo. We supported the peace process. We extended a hand again and again, only to be bitten by Hamas and its backers in Tehran who saw peace as an existential threat. Even in the final hours before October 7, 2023, we were still trying. Saudi Arabia was in confidential talks with Hamas – trying… Read more »
You are joking, providing some pathetic, whining nonsense from a “former member of al-Qaeda, then a spy for MI5 and MI6”? Are you kidding? Do you seriously believe that our James Bonds have ever done any good in the world? Are you unaware of their activities in Ukraine, for example, providing intelligence and support to the Banderite Ukrainians attacking Russian civilians, including presumably the Crocus City Hall attack, killing 145 young people? Or their unwavering support for exactly Al Qaeda and ISIS in Syria over more than a decade, resulting in yet another Arabian country being damned probably into a century of lawlessness, corruption and instability? And MI6 is ‘joined at the hip’ to the CIA, who is ‘joined at the hip’ to Mossad, the agency acting for Israel and the source of most of the world’s conflicts today. Israel, that tiny little country threatening every neighbour with its nuclear weapons that it is not supposed to have, refusing to contemplate any such matter as non-proliferation or IAEA inspections, while happily bombing all and sundry into submission – with the incessant aid of USA, of course. And you complain about Gaza? Those 2 million people locked away under 24/7 surveillance… Read more »
Perhaps if Ofcom stopped its relentless and costly persecution of GB News – it could focus more on the numerous transgressions by the BBC – which has the largest radio and TV audiences by far. Nah, didn’t think so.
Problem is that the BBC have to be allowed to mark their own homework before Ofcom can take a look which is exactly what has happened with the BBC’s terrorist programme.
The film was factually correct but the Zionists lobbied Ofcom because they objected to the 13 year old narrator being the son of the Agriculture Minister who is a member of the political wing of Hamas.
The BBC are cowards for pulling the documentary.
The BBC are irredeemably corrupted by a mindset that has no foundation in British culture. Its mission seems to now be to use its position, and the money it extorts from the British citizens, to spread its corrupted mindset to those who still view its content.
It has become the fifth column and it undermines the people and the state. It cannot be reformed it must be abolished
Naturally, Israel and its supporters are up in arms against the film, purely on the basis that nobody should be allowed to report anything out of Gaza, as clearly demonstrated by well over 200 reporters having been killed there by the IDF since October 2023. And, dear, oh dear, the boy is the son of someone connected to Hamas – their deputy minister of agriculture, no less. Clearly a terrorist. And who is complaining? A “Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism” for a start. Why is there such post? Is there a “Chief Executive of Campaign Against Anti-Muslims”? They would have a field day reading DS comments. Or a “Chief Executive of Campaign Against Genocide” anywhere? I thought not. The question is asked, “Can we trust the sources the BBC uses in Gaza to report accurately, fairly and without bias?” According to this video, key positions in the BBC are held by strong supporters of Israel, so it is indeed surprising that the BBC ever showed the film, whereby it has now apparently already been withdrawn. And the film is supposed to form “part of a consistent pattern of systemic bias at the BBC when it comes to Israel”; it is… Read more »
I just wish what the deluded Sachs said was true.
On what basis do you claim Sachs is deluded and what do you wish were true? Your response is somewhat confusing.
Where’s the evidence, apart from statements from barbaric baby butchering bastards, that over 200 journalists have been killed. Given that Hamas banned foreign reporters, so their lies couldn’t be disproved, long before Israel may, or more likely may not, have tried to keep them out of Gaza it’s very hard to believe there were 200 journalists in Gaza when Hamas started the current conflict by killing over 1,000 innocent civilians in a single day.
When you refer to “barbaric baby butchering bastards”, I presume you mean the IDF. See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqXvc_wL8Xg.
But you will ignore the images and claim the woman is a Hamas operative.
Yes, many of the reporters in Gaza would have been simple students reporting the events in Gaza on the internet but also companies like Al Jazeera have lost staff. See https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/12/31/know-their-names-the-palestinian-journalists-killed-by-israel-in-gaza.
But, again, you will claim Al Jazeera is Arabian and therefore …
Are you aware that Israel’s security forces, and doubtless Netanyahu, were always aware Hamas was planning an outbreak? It was widely reported at the time: look up “Jericho Wall document” on the internet. One wonders how far Mossad was involved in the whole affair – they certainly did a good job in promoting the aftermath.
He’s part of the Establishment which never accepts responsibility; never resigns and won’t be sacked.
Instead, a few relatively minor BBC employees will be “disciplined” (but probably not sacked) and the OFCOMMUNISTS will allow the BBC to trundle along, employing paedophiles, gropers, anti-Semites and blatantly left-wing political activists ….. all funded by a poll tax which they will make compulsory in due course by adding it to your Council Tax since so many are now refusing to pay it.
I watched the BBC 10 o’clock news last night.
And actually the BBC actually was the news for most of the bulletin….(Greg Wallace and Gaza documentary)
Absolutely awful. It should
have been a footnote at most….