David Craig, on October 2nd, 2024Wednesday-Thursday blog
Recently I’ve made 4 or 5 complaints to the useless, UK-hating, migrant-loving, anti-semitic BBC. I guess this shows what an empty life I must have to waste my time in this way.
Anyway, here are just two of my most recent complaints. Hopefully you’ll notice two issues:
- the BBC reply never actually addresses the point I am complaining about
- both replies are rather similar, so they must be a standard reponse the BBC issues to fob off any complaints about pro-Arab-terrorist, anti-Israel BBC bias
YOUR COMPLAINT:
Anti-semitic bias of BBC reporter
When reporting on an Israeli strike to kill a senior Hezbollah commander and some of his subordinates in Beirut, the reporter (I think it was Israel-hating Orla Guerin) blamed Israel for not giving a warning of the attack to the building’s residents. Did it not occur to the BBC reporter that, had Israel given a warning, then the Hezbollah commander would have escaped?
As for any civilians killed in the attack, I would have thought that innocent civilians (if there are any) would have realised that it’s not a great idea to hang around when senior Hamas or Hezbollah commanders are having a meeting anywhere near you!
Dear Mr Craig,
Thank you for contacting the BBC and for watching the BBC News at Six.
We were sorry to read you had concerns about an item on the programme on 20 September.
We watched the programme back, in light of your concerns.
Orla Guerin reported from Beirut. In introducing the report, she set out the situation for viewers.
She explained what Israel had said in reaction to the strikes in Lebanon, and that ‘Hezbollah has been returning fire’.
Our overall coverage of the blasts in Lebanon caused by exploding communication devices, widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, has made clear the context in which these attacks have taken place.
We have detailed the simmering tensions and cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel since Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7th October last year, explaining both the actions taken by Hezbollah and the aims and nature of the organisation; our reporting has reflected that Hezbollah are proscribed as a terrorist organisation by several governments including the UK and Israel.
Indeed, before going to Orla, Jane Hill made this clear on this edition as well.
We have explained that Hezbollah members were the intended targets of these attacks. However, it is legitimate that we have also reported on the type of injuries sustained by casualties, and that civilians.
This is clearly an ongoing story and we will continue to follow developments closely with due impartiality, providing our audience with comprehensive information.
That said, your concerns were noted.
Please be assured that your concerns were sent to senior staff at BBC One and senior management via our daily report.
Thanks again for taking the time to get in touch.
YOUR COMPLAINT:
Simon Jones called Hezbollah terrorists “fighters”
Hezbollah, like Hamas, have been designated as a ‘terrorist organisation’ sponsored by Iran and dedicated to the total destruction of Israel and the extermination of all Jews. Yet Simon Jones referred to Hezbollah members as “fighters” in a piece sympathetically portraying them as victims of Israeli actions.
Dear Mr Craig
Thanks for contacting about BBC News.
Our coverage of the blasts in Lebanon caused by exploding communication devices, widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, has made clear the context in which these attacks have taken place. We have detailed the simmering tensions and cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel since Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7th October last year, explaining both the actions taken by Hezbollah and the aims and nature of the organisation; our reporting has reflected that Hezbollah are proscribed as a terrorist organisation by several governments including the UK and Israel.
We have explained that Hezbollah members were the intended targets of these attacks. However, it is legitimate that we have also reported on the type of injuries sustained by casualties, and that civilians, including children were also killed and injured.
We have examined the implications of these extraordinary attacks in terms of an escalation in the already volatile situation in this region and the significance of this new type of technological warfare.
This is clearly an ongoing story and we will continue to follow developments closely with due impartiality, providing our audience with comprehensive information.
We have shared your feedback with senior editors at BBC News.
Category: 
I don’t know how you tolerate watching the TV news. GBN is not much better these days. At least you got replies. I have written to GBN a few times which says we are important and they want to hear from us, but they don’t even reply and still churn out nonsense on some issues.
I don’t want our politicians or media supporting any side in the violence. I want them doing everything possible to stop the violence. The real victims are the general population who are having their lives destroyed. It was WWII in partIcular that decided that non-combatants were fair game and Britain showed how to do it.
GBNews is now my go-to station for national and international news. Under OFCOM rules and in order not to be taken off air they are forced to give “discussion” time to several profoundly irritating lefties, whose names I had better not mention. One just has mentally to switch off during their tiresome pontifications. As a (now very) old person whose free TV licence was taken away a couple of years ago, I eschew BBC TV entirely and watch GBNews on YouTube catchup not long after the live presentation. If BBC goons ever come calling at my residence they’ll be sent away with a very uncomfortable flee in their ears and Crapita must by this time have spent as much in paper, envelopes and postage to threaten me (their letters arrive approx. every fortnight) as they would have gained had I paid the annual TV fine! As for radio, R4 has been my stand-by for more than 3 decades, but I have in the last few days decided to abandon them forthwith and have ordered a nice second-hand CD player from EBay in order to enjoy music when I am working in the kitchen. Of recent months I can guarantee that within 30 seconds of tuning in the R4 I shall hear the words “climate change”, “global boiling”, or praise of “net zero” coming into the conversation, plus allusions to the inherent way-cism of native English like me, we whose fathers and grandfathers fought for the freedom of our country and whose more distant ancestors laboured in poverty on the land to produce food or in factories during the Industrial Revolution to produce goods which made England the great Nation it once was. The House of Savile, Rolf Harris and Huw Edwards is a national disgrace and I wouldn’t be alone in not regretting its disappearance from the airwaves. No point in making complaints about anything, from inherent partiality or prejudice to over-loud “incidental music”. They never acknowledge culpability. On a different topic, Rosie Duffield’s Resignation Letter is a gem! Well done Rosie! Every word is true! Ought she to have resigned entirely, thus necessitating a byelection in which she could have stood as Independent, but with the risk of losing her seat, or will she do more good in the H of C as a perpetual thorn in the Kneeler’s side? Not sure! Meanwhile, today the aforesaid 2TK is over in the EU cuddling up to Ursula Fond-of-Lying, the two of them undoubtedly conspiring to get England back into the EU by the back door, an entry route about which perhaps our esteemed leader knows quite a bit!
I’m amazed, StillReading, that you have only recently given up on Radio 4. I packed it in a few years ago. Woman’s Hour constant woke tub-thumping did it for me. However my bedside radio is set to Radio 4 and I occasionally catch a couple minutes before I can get to the off button – you are absolutely correct, I can almost guarantee to hear some reference to climate change/global warming within those 2 minute. Unbelievable!!
As for GB news, thanks to Ofcom they are obliged to look unbiased (unlike the BBC seemingly) so we have to put up with the ill-informed outraged lefties.
David, shame on you for listening to BBC News in the first place. I wouldn’t even bother complaining – they don’t care, they know better than you and you’re just a misguided non-Guardian reader.
I agree Carolyn. I was a bit tardy is giving up completely on R4. Should have done it months ago. When I first retired 26 years ago and relished the novelty of being home during the day I looked forward to Women’s Hour. In those days the Hour always ended with a 15 minute slot devoted to the reading by an articulate narrator of a worthwhile novel or real-life narrative. Then that disappeared in favour of some “drama” and now even that has gone I believe. I’ve even given up on The Archers now it’s become in effect a vehicle for “woke”, the alphabet brigade and the “rewilding” idiocy. As you say, very evidently unlike the BBC, GBNews are obliged to appear unbiased, hence the tiresome lefties. My bedside radio I confess is, like yours, tuned to R4 because I like the Shipping Forecast! I am usually awake in time to hear it at 5.20 a.m. and living on the coast as I do, the Inshore Forecast gives me a far better indication of what I’ll encounter when I open my front door than does the fairly useless general weather forecast!
My complaint to the BBC was me simply cancelling my TV tax. I have paid them nothing for around 10 years, I am not funding the Linekers of this world. People around me moan about the BBC while continuing to fund their blatant leftist anti British anti traditional agenda, just stop moaning and do something that really counts. The BBC doesnt listen to you as you are still giving them cash, they are mocking you in reality. For all guidance of you want to join the revolution and cancel your TV tax, go to ChilliJonCarne YT channel, he knows his onions. I get a monthly threatening letter that I have kept in a big pile to return to them when I move house.