The BBC: Cover-Up Central

What's up with the BBC? Every day lately they seem determined to obfuscate reality instead of reporting it.

For example, on January 30^th, 2013, the BBC reported (from afar) on the discovery of 69 “men” (some were boys as young as 12, actually) in a river in Aleppo, Syria. (Their hands were bound and they'd been shot in the heads.) To the BBC, it's a mystery who killed them. Was it the regime, or the rebels? It's impossible to tell, in the BBC's version. [The U.S. media also took this “it's a baffling mystery” line.]

But Aljazeera, which actually had a reporter at the scene, left no doubt who the killers were. The local inhabitants, and relatives of the murdered, made clear that the Assad regime was the culprit. The victims had been kidnapped a week earlier. And the river is a favorite dumping ground of Assad's cutthroats.

Aljazeera aired its report before the BBC story.

Obviously the BBC is aware of Aljazeera, and monitors it. [Or are they so high-handed, or inept, that they don't?]

It's routine for media organizations to report things other media organizations report, with or without attribution. The BBC could have said “Aljazeera reports” and still spin the matter of responsibility for the executions as uncertain. You'd think that media organizations without a reporter on the scene would pay attention to one that did. Well, you better think again.

And here's the BBC is on February 6^th, 7 am GMT (Greenwich Mean Time, the time in London), running interference for the right-wing, corrupt Spanish ruling party which is making the Spanish economy scream and has driven the official unemployment rate up to 26% and still rising (but none in the bourgeois media dare call it a depression- it's a “recession”) in the name of “fiscal responsibility.” (This vicious class warfare is officially called “austerity.”)

The leading Spanish newspaper El Pais got hold of a ledger that detailed secret, undeclared (and thus untaxed) cash payouts to party bigwigs, including the loathsome party boss and current PM of Spain, Rajoy, doled out by the party treasurer. So far the response of the party- which controls the government- has been to lie through their teeth. They've also blocked any discussion in parliament of the matter. [A party members has admitted to witnessing the handing out of envelopes of cash by the party treasurer.]

But the BBC doesn't tell you any of this. All they “report” is that El Pais has some “documents” about which the party treasurer is to be questioned. The treasurer denies the “documents” authenticity. And the Prime Minister is “linked” in some unspecified way to these “documents.” That's the BBC's story, crafted for maximum obfuscation. No hint of the content of the “documents,” no mention of money, secret payments, anything that gives you the slightest idea what it's all about. An hour later they drop the story entirely. Just as well. Might as well do a total cover-up, BBC.

The BBC was at it again on 2/8/13, 2 pm GMT. In Kano, Nigeria, two separate groups of gunmen attack two health clinics simultaneously and murder 9 female health workers and two men to stop the polio vaccine campaign. BBC calls them “unknown gunmen.” Doesn't say “Boko Haram,” “Islamists,” “terrorists,” or anything else. Not even “militants.” No reference to the Islamofascists' ongoing attacks on polio vaccination. There's an extensive history here which the BBC omits. Providing no context enables the BBC to block understanding of what happened. It's a blatant, deliberate obfuscation of the situation. It's not a mystery what happened and why. Why the BBC wants to protect Boko Haram is the real mystery here. I'm not saying they should say Boko Haram did it. Providing the correct context allows people to draw their own conclusions. And I know they know how to provide context, since they so often provide slanted, biased, tendentious contexts to slam their chosen enemies abroad.

Later, at 2:30 pm GMT: The main “presenter” (“anchor” in American media-speak) brings the BBC reporter back on (from Lagos, where he is, NOT from the scene, where he isn't) to again run interference for Boko Haram. The BBC reporter, a white guy, says “We'll never know who did it,” “there are lots of people with guns there,” “there are criminal gangs and business disputes,” irrelevant red herrings. This was a planned assassination carried out against vaccinators!! Asshole! It's left to the presenter to even mention Boko Haram. The reporter says they haven't taken credit for the attack. So I guess it wasn't them! Just before the murders, one of their Islamofascist preacher bosses denounced the polio vaccine campaign. He claims the vaccines cause malaria.[sic!] Omissions, red herrings, raising baseless suspicions about other parties: This reporter could be Boko Haram's defense lawyer.

On 2/9/13- 7am GMT: the BBC mentions that the body of “the left-wing poet Pablo Neruda” is being exhumed. He “died 12 days after” the CIA coup in Chile. (“CIA” isn't mentioned by the “presenter” i.e. propaganda reader Paul Henley- hey, he just reads the stuff.) The only explanation for the exhumation given by the BBC is the cryptic sentence “there have long been standing doubts about the cause of death.”

Actually it isn't a matter of vague suspicions. His long time servant has provided detailed information about how Neruda was murdered. In fact, the military injected Neruda with poison. BBC hides all the key information. About 20 minutes later there's a one sentence mention, this time it's just “a left-wing poet” is being exhumed. Not even Neruda's name this time. No mention of “poison” at any time. But the entire point of the exhumation is to look for the poison! How dishonest can you get, BBC? (Pretty dishonest, apparently.)

Then there's a bit of fluff about the notorious Catholic Church cult the Knights of Malta, which the BBC fraudulently identifies as “a major humanitarian organization” that used to be a military unit. They're parading “in their distinctive robes.” Real informative. The Knights of Malta is a cabal of rich and very extreme reactionaries who indulge in political manipulations and conspiracies.

You don't suppose the BBC is a right wing outfit, do you? Their constant demonization of FARC while simultaneously systematically blacking out all the atrocities of the Colombian rulers, including routine murder of labor organizers, might make one wonder. They also have a bee in their bonnet about Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and about Cuba- toeing the line of U.S. Propaganda. But doesn't the UK virtually always slavishly follow the U.S.' lead?

So over just a few days we find several egregious examples of dishonest misreporting. Unfortunately this is par for the course for the self-proclaimed world's leading news organization. (They really do claim that accolade for themselves.)