It was close but not quite the world’s first broadcaster. Other European nations claim the distinction along with KDKA Pittsburgh as the oldest
That’s what BBC says. Here’s a different view from Media Lens. It’s an independent "UK-based media-watch project….offer(ing) authoritative criticism" reflecting "reality" that’s free from the corrupting influence of media corporations and the governments they support.
Its creators and editors (Davids Cromwell and Edwards) ask: "Can the BBC tell the truth….when its senior managers are appointed by the government" and will be fired if they step out of line and become too critical. It notes that nothing "fundamentally changed since BBC founder Lord Reith wrote the establishment: ‘They know they can trust us not to be really impartial.’ " He didn’t disappoint, nor have his successors like current Director-General and Chairman of the Executive Board Mark Thompson along with Michael Lyons, Chairman, BBC Trust that replaced the Board of Governors on January 1, 2007 and oversees BBC operations.
On January 1, 1927, BBC was granted a Royal Charter, made a state-owned and funded corporation, still pretends to be quasi-autonomous, and changed its name to its present one – The British Broadcasting Corporation. Its first Charter ran for 10 years, succeeding ones were renewed for equal fixed length periods, BBC is in its ninth Charter period, and is perhaps more dominant, pervasive and corrupted than ever in an age of marketplace everything and space-age technology with which to operate.
It’s now the world’s largest broadcaster, has about 28,000
Most important is how BBC functions, who it serves, and Media Lens’ editors explain it best and keep at it with regular updates. They argue that the entire mass media, including BBC, function as a "propaganda system for elite interests." It’s especially true for topics mattering most – war and peace, "vast corporate criminality," US-UK duplicity, and "threats to the very existence of human life." They’re systematically "distorted, suppressed, marginalized or ignored" in a decades-long public trust betrayal by an organization claiming "honesty, integrity (is) what the BBC stands for (and it’s) free from political influence and commercial pressure."
In fact, BBC abandoned those notions straight away, and a glaring example came during the 1926 General Strike. Its web site says it stood up against Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill who "urged the government to take over the BBC, but (general manager) Reith persuaded Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin that this would be against the national interest" it was sworn to serve.
Media Lens forthrightly corrects the record. Reith never embraced the public trust. He used BBC for propaganda, operated it as a strikebreaker, secretly wrote anti-union speeches for the Tories, and refused to give air time to worker representatives. It got BBC labeled the "British Falsehood Corporation," and proved from inception it was a reliable business and government partner. It still is, of course, more than ever.
Consider BBC’s role during WW II when it became a de facto government agency, and throughout its existence job applicants have been vetted to be sure what side they’re on. Noted
Only "reliable" ones reported on the 1982
This has been BBC practice since inception – steadfastly pro-government and pro-business with
Back on BBC’s web site, it recounts its history by decades from the 1920s to the new millennium when post-9/11 controversies surfaced. BBC only cites one of them rather pathetically. This critique gives examples of its duplicity across the world.
Misreporting on
The controversy BBC mentioned was the so-called Hutton Inquiry into the death of Ministry of Defense weapons expert Dr. David Kelly. On July 18, 2003, reports were he committed suicide, but they were dubious at best. Here how BBC explained it: "a bitter row with Government" emerged after a "Today programme suggested that the Government ‘sexed up’ the case for war with Iraq in a dossier of evidence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. (BBC governors) backed the report, rejecting (PM) Tony Blair’s (demands) for a retraction."
"The row escalated over the following weeks when editorial flaws became evident." Then came Kelly’s "suicide." It made daily headlines because he was the source of the BBC report. "The Hutton Inquiry followed, and on January 28, 2004 chairman Gavyn Davies resigned when Lord Hutton’s findings were published. The following day the remaining governors accepted the resignation of Director-General Greg Dyke."
True to form, BBC suppressed the truth, so here’s what we know. David Kelly, as an insider, accused authorities of faking a claim of Iraq WMDs that could be unleashed in 45 minutes with devastating effects. He then mysteriously turned up dead (three days after appearing before a televised government committee) to assure he’d tell no more tales with potentially smoking-gun evidence for proof. He apparently had plenty.
What BBC and the Blair government suppressed, a Kelly Investigation Group (KIG) examined and revealed. Consider these facts:
— Kelly’s death was pronounced suicide without an autopsy;
— Lord Hutton was aging and never before chaired a public inquiry, let alone one this sensitive making daily headlines;
— no formal inquest was ordered and was subsumed into the Hutton Inquiry;
— evidence showed Kelly’s body was moved twice;
— a supposed knife, bottle of water, glasses, and cap reported by later witnesses weren’t seen by the first ones who found Kelly;
— hemorrhaging from a left wrist arterial wound was ruled the cause of death, but there was little blood to substantiate it; other suspicious findings also suggested a thorough independent investigation was warranted.
In fact, evidence became clear that the real agenda was cover-up. Key witnesses weren’t called to testify. An anesthesiologist specialist read two KIG accounts (of known facts) about Kelly’s death and concluded that "the whole ‘suicide’ story (was) phony in the extreme….He was clearly murdered." Another surgeon confirmed that Kelly couldn’t have died of hemorrhage as reported. It’s impossible to bleed to death from that kind of arterial severing.
Three other doctors also examined evidence, commented, and concluded that Kelly didn’t commit suicide. The doctors and KIG then wrote an 11 page letter to the Coroner, cited their concerns in detail, and got no response. In a follow-up phone call, the Coroner said that he saw the police report and felt everything was in order.
In the meantime, the Hutton report came out and was leaked a day early to defuse a possible murder angle. Concurrently, the Coroner refused to reopen the investigation, the Hutton Inquiry was bogus, it never proved suicide and, in fact, was commissioned to suppress Blair government lies, whitewash the whole affair, and end it with considerable BBC help.
In this instance, things didn’t play out as BBC planned, thanks to correspondent Andrew Gilligan. On May 29, 2003, he delivered what became known as his "6:07 AM dispatch" and said his source (David Kelly) alleged that the government "sexed up" the September dossier with the 45 minute WMD claim knowing it was false. He was immediately reigned in on subsequent accounts, but the damage was done, and Gilligan upped the stakes in a June 1 Mail on Sunday article.
In it, he quoted Kelly blaming Alastair Campbell (Blair government’s 1997 – 2003 Director of Communications and Strategy) for embellishing the dossier to provide cause for war against
It wouldn’t be simple with an exposed
BBC cut a deal. Saying they resigned in late January 2004, it fired Gilligan along with Chairman Gavyn Davies and Director-General Greg Dyke. Even they weren’t immune to dismissal at a time of an "aberrant" report that later proved true. For BBC, it was back to business as usual under new management supporting two illegal wars showing no signs of ending or BBC reporting truthfully about them.
From the start, it championed Tony Blair’s "moral case for war," was a complicit cheerleader for it with the rest of the media, and found no fault with Washington and London’s blaming Iraq’s regime for what it didn’t cause or could do nothing to prevent. Instead, round the clock propaganda ignored the facts and barely hinted at western responsibility for the most appalling crimes of war and against humanity that continue every day.
It’s the way BBC reports on everything. Fiction substitutes for fact, news is carefully filtered, wars of aggression are called liberating ones, yet consider what former BBC political editor Andrew Marr wrote in his 2004 book on British journalism: Those in the trade "are employed to be studiously neutral, expressing little emotion and certainly no opinion; millions of people would say that news is the conveying of fact, and nothing more."
Even worse (and most humiliating) was his on-air 2003 post-Iraq invasion comment that he’d like to erase: "I don’t think anybody (can dispute) Tony Blair. He said that they would be able to take
So much for truth and accuracy and a free and impartial BBC. It continues to call a puppet prime minister legitimate; an occupied country liberated; a pillaged free market paradise "democracy;" with millions dead, displaced and immiserated unreported like it never happened.
Supporting Aggression in
BBC was no better on
Contrast that description with BBC’s reporting that
BBC’s Disturbing Balkan Wars Reporting
BBC’s shame is endless, and consider how it reported on the 1990s Balkan wars that evoked popular support on the right and left. Slobadon Milosevic was unfairly vilified for the West’s destruction of
Milosevic was arrested in April 2001, abducted from his home, shipped off to The Hague, hung out to dry when he got there, then silenced to prevent what he knew from coming out that would explain the conflict’s real aim and who the real criminals were.
The war’s pretext was a ruse, Kosovo is a Serbian province but in 1999 was stripped away. Ever since, it’s been a US-NATO occupied colony, denied its sovereignty, and run by three successive puppet prime ministers with known ties to organized crime and drugs trafficking. It’s also home to one of
Then on February 17, 2008, during a special parliamentary session, Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence. It violated international law but got something more important – complicit western backing (outweighing a one-third EU nation block opposition). It also got one-sided BBC support. Its reporting took great care to ignore an illegal act, leave unmentioned that Kosovo is part of
Targeting Hugo Chavez and Assailing His Democratic Credentials
BBC misreports everywhere at one time or other, depending on breaking world events and the way power elitists view them. Consider
During anti-Chavez demonstrations, "Mr. Chavez appeared on the state-run television denouncing the protest, (then BBC falsely reported corporate TV channels it called independent ones) were taken off the air by order of the government. (High-ranking) military officers rebell(ed) against Mr. Chavez. (He) finally quit after overnight talks with a delegation of generals at the Miraflores presidential palace."
"BBC’s Adam Easton, in Caracas at the time, says there are noisy celebrations on the streets, (and former army general) Guaicaipuro Lameda said Mr. Chavez’s administration had been condemned because it began arming citizens’ committees (and) these armed groups….fired at opposition protesters."
In another report, BBC was jubilant in quoting
BBC went along without a hint of dissent or a word of the truth, but where was BBC when a popular uprising and military support restored Chavez to office two days later? It quietly announced a "chastened….Chavez return(ed) to office after the collapse of the interim government….and pledged to make necessary changes." In spite of vilifying him in the coup’s run-up, cheerleading it when it happened and calling it a resignation, BBC put on a brave face. It had to be painful saying: "The
It’s hard imagining
It’s done plenty for Venezuelans but Morsbach won’t report it. Under Chavez, social advances have been remarkable and consider two among many. According to
Morsbach also omitted how Chavez is tackling homelessness. He’s reducing it with programs like communal housing, drug treatment and providing modest stipends for the needy. His goal – "for there (not) to be a single child in the streets….not a single beggar in the street." It’s working through Mission Negra Hipolita that guides the homeless to shelters and rehab centers. They provide medical and psychological care and pay homeless in them a modest amount in return for community service. No mention either compares
Instead in a BBC profile, Chavez is called "increasingly autocratic, revolutionary (and) combative." He’s a man who’s "alienated and alarmed the country’s traditional political elite, as well as several foreign governments," (and he) court(s) controversy (by) making high-profile visits to
The account then implies Chavez is to blame for "relations with
Chavez’s December 2007 constitutional reform referendum was also covered. It was defeated, the profile suggested controversial elements in it, but omitted explaining its objective – to deepen and broaden Venezuelan democracy, more greatly empower the people, provide them more social services, and make government more accountable to its citizens. Instead, BBC highlighted White House spokeswoman Dana Perino saying: Venezuelans "spoke their minds, and they voted against the reforms that Hugo Chavez had recommended and I think that bodes well for the country’s future and freedom and liberty."
In another piece, Inghram took aim at the country’s "whirlwind of nationalisations, and threats to private companies (are) changing
Instead, Inghram cites his critics saying "his plan is all about power" (and) bring(ing) no benefit to the nation" in lieu of letting business run it as their private fiefdom. It’s how they’ve always done it, Venezuelans were deeply impoverished as a result, and BBC loves taking aim at a leader who wants to change things for the better and is succeeding.
It refers to his "stepp(ing) up his radical revolution since being re-elected in December 2006." Venezuela is "very divided" and its president "far too powerful (and) can rule by decree" – with no explanation of Venezuela’s Enabling Law, his limited authority under it, its expiration after 18 months, and that Venezuela’s (pre-Bolivarian) 1961 constitution gave comparable powers to four of the country’s past presidents.
BBC further assailed Chavez’s refusal to review one of RCTV’s operating licenses and accused him of limiting free expression. Unreported was the broadcaster’s tainted record, its lack of ethics or professional standards, and its lawless behavior. Specifically omitted was its leading role in instigating and supporting the aborted April 2002 coup and its subsequent complicity in the 2002-03 oil-management lockout and multi-billion dollar sabotage against state oil company PDVSA.
Despite it, RCTV got a minor slap on the wrist, lost only its VHF license, and it still operates freely on Venezuelan cable and satellite. Yet, if an American broadcaster was as lawless, it would be banned from operating, and its management (under
It falsely stated RCTV’s license wasn’t renewed because "it supported opposition candidates (and said) hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in
BBC’s War Against Mugabe
On April 4, The New York Times correspondent Michael Wines wrote what BBC often reports: "New Signs of Mugabe Crackdown in
Below is what BBC reported the same day in one of its continuing inflammatory accounts in the wake of
In its role as an unabashed Tsvangirai cheerleader, BBC headlined: "Mugabe’s ZANU-PF prepares for battle" after its parliamentary defeat – MDC winning 99 seats; ZANU-PF 97 (including an uncontested one); a breakaway MDC faction 10 seats and an independent, one, in Zimbabwe’s 210 constituencies with only 206 seats being contested; ZANU didn’t contest one seat, and three MDC candidates died in the run-up to the poll.
Results for the 60 (largely ceremonial) Senate seats were announced April 5 with ZANU-PF winning 30 and the combined opposition gaining the same number. In addition, ZANU-PF announced 16 parliamentary seats are being contested and ordered recounts for them that could change the electoral balance. Mugabe is also challenging the presidential tally, asked the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to delay releasing it and wants it retabulated because of what he calls "errors and miscalculations."
MDC officials called the move illegal, BBC seems eager to agree, and then went on the attack the way it always does against independent black republics. It can’t tolerate them, but it’s especially hostile to
Decades of exploitation followed, a 1961 constitution was drafted to keep whites in power,
Robert Mugabe was elected president, won overwhelmingly, remained the country’s leader for 28 years, and at age 84 ran again for another term on March 29. He’s called outspoken, controversial, and polarizing but for millions in
In a close March 29 election, vote-rigging is suspected, results days later weren’t announced, and BBC accused ZANU-PF of knowing and concealing them as well as governing dictatorially. With no official totals, it stated "Mugabe….failed to pass the 50% barrier needed to avoid a second-round run-off." It’s now been announced, by law must be held within 21 days of March 29 (by or before April 19), but AP reports "diplomats in Harare (the capital) and at the UN said Mugabe (wants) a 90 day delay to give security forces time to clamp down."
BBC expects trouble, appears trying to incite it, and denounces Mugabe loyalists as hard-line, militant and known for their violence. In battle mode, correspondent Grant Ferret from
Correspondent Ian Pannell joins the assault. He stresses a crumbling economy, out-of-control inflation, people unable to cope and talking everywhere about "a struggle to make ends meet." They "spend hours queuing at the bank or waiting in line at a bakery where lines stretch around the corners. Many shops have as many empty shelves as full ones," Zimbabweans are suffering, and "80% of the workforce" has no regular job. People survive anyway they can, there’s "a thriving black market," overseas remittances help, but "fields (are) without crops, shops without goods, petrol stations….low or empty, women at the side of the road begging for food, traders desperate for customers and hard currency."
There’s no denying
Doing it hasn’t been easy, however. It’s meant getting little or no outside aid, bending the rules, restraining civil liberties, banning hostile journalism like BBC’s, but up to now (most often) holding reasonably free and fair elections and winning every time. Despite
But it looks like that’s where
Zimbabwe’s economy has collapsed, drought problems have been severe, food and fuel shortages are acute, 83% of the population lives on less than $2 a day, half the people are malnourished, more than 10% of children die before age five, and the country’s HIV/AIDS rate is the fourth highest in the world. In addition, average life expectancy plunged to 37.3 years, inflation is out of control, conditions are disastrous, and it was mostly engineered by 2002 western-imposed sanctions.
Fifteen EU member states and
ZIDERA states that economic and other sanctions will be enforced until the
If Mugabe goes, the IMF can swoop in with a promised $2 billion (renewable) aid package for a new MDC government with the usual strings attached – sweeping structural adjustments, privatizing everything, ending social services, mandating mass layoffs, crushing small local businesses, escalating poverty, and returning the country to its colonial past under new millennium management under a black stooge of a president to make it all look legitimate.
BBC has a role in this, and it’s been at it for decades. It’s waged a multi-year anti-Mugabe jihad and seems now to be going for broke. For days, broadcasts practically scream regime change. Reports are inflammatory, visibly one-sided, with correspondents saying (MDC’s) Tsvangirai won, election results are being withheld, no runoff is necessary, and when it’s held Mugabe will use violence to retain power.
On April 5, BBC quoted Tsvangirai accusing Mugabe of "preparing to go to war against the country’s people (and) deploying troops and armed militias to intimidate voters ahead of a possible runoff….thousands of army recruits are being recruited, militants are being rehabilitated and some few claiming to be war veterans are already on the warpath."
Tsvangirai wants the courts to force officials to release the results,
BBC also suggests that international intervention is needed "to prevent violence if a second round is held (because) violence and intimidation (have) been characteristic of past (
Its correspondent Peter Biles reports "the ruling party remains divided….many (want) a change of leadership, and believe under Mr. Mugabe,
A broadcaster is supposed to be neutral, fair and balanced and BBC states "Honesty and integrity (is) what (it) stands for." BBC is dedicated to "educate (and) inform, free from political interference and commercial pressure."
The US-based Society of Professional Journalists states in its Preamble that it’s the "duty of the journalist (to seek) truth and provid(e) a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. (They must) strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist’s credibility….Seek truth and report it….honestly, fairly, courageously."
In serving power against the public interest for 86 years, BBC fails on all counts.
Stephen Lendman lives in
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