The islamophiliac BBC finally admits that they were badly used by Islamic supremacists in the Islamic revolutions sweeping the globe. Who can forget how the enemedia derided and ridiculed me for saying that the Muslim Brotherhood was moving into power in Egypt, and al qaeda in Libya, jihadists in Tunisia, etc.?
January 2011 flashback to a Sandmonkey tweet that was retweeted by Mona Eltahawy, another Egyptian protest lover who was subsequently sexually attacked at one of these "freedom" protests. Of course, I disagreed with Sandmonkey and had my public falling out with him over my insistence that the Muslim Brotherhood was very much a major player in the overthrow of Mubarak and whatever freedom Egyptians had enjoyed under his government.
Flashback January 2011:
As I predicted by Atlas in January 2011, the Islamic supremacist killers have swept the elections in Egypt. Even then the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader was ululating"Prepare for War with Israel"
How the left was deriding me for questioning big media's narrative of freedom lovers and democracy (here, too). So why isn't this splashed across the newspages, front pages and broadcast news ledes across the country? Instead, these spineless, gutless wonders slithered back under their rocks.
Our coverage of the Arab Spring was over-excited, admits BBC Daily Mail
Our coverage of the Arab Spring was over-excited, admits BBCHead of news admits reporters may have failed to explore both sides of the story Countries where regimes were not overthrown were ignored, says BBC Trust report by former UN director of communications Two thirds of mobile footage and other user-generated content was broadcast without any caveats By Paul Revoir
The BBC’s coverage of the Arab Spring has been heavily criticised – by the corporation’s bosses.
Head of news Helen Boaden admitted that her journalists got carried away with events and produced ‘over-excited’ reports.
She told a BBC Trust report that in Libya, where reporters were ‘embedded’ with rebels, they may have failed to explore both sides of the story properly.
Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen was among those criticised in the study into coverage of the uprisings, which found that ‘excitement’ did sometimes ‘infect’ the reporting, which some viewers described as ‘too emotive’ and ‘veering into opinion’.
The BBC's coverage of major revolutions such as Libya, pictured. were prioritised over reporting from countries where regimes were not overthrown resulting in 'insufficient' coverage
The document, published yesterday, also raised concerns about the corporation’s use of footage filmed on mobile phones and other user-generated content. It noted that the BBC failed to warn viewers with ‘caveats’ about the ‘authenticity’ of such footage in 74 per cent of cases.
It also warned that the corporation ignored events in some countries as it concentrated on ‘big’ stories.
Miss Boaden is quoted saying: ‘In the conflict in Egypt in the beginning . . . we might have sounded over-excited – you can take on the colour of who you’re with. I had to say “just be careful about your tone”.
‘In Libya too, where we were essentially embedded [with the rebels] at the start, we might have sounded over-excited – you have to be careful if you can’t get to the other side of the story.’
While the report found that overall the BBC’s coverage was ‘generally impartial’, it did raise concerns about aspects of its reporting.
Journalist Edward Mortimer who authored the report said it was 'a pity' that reporting suffered on behalf of coverage of uprisings in countries like Egypt, pictured
Embarrassingly for Mr Bowen, it suggested he should ‘travel a little less’ so he would have more time to provide ‘insight’ and ‘strategic guidance’ to bosses.
The report’s author, former UN director of communications Edward Mortimer, added that the BBC made mistakes in its reporting of countries such as Bahrain, where he said coverage was ‘rather sporadic’ and arguably insufficient.
The report added there should have been ‘greater eagerness’ in covering the situation in Yemen and also questioned coverage of Algeria, Morocco and Jordan.
Alison Hastings, chairman of the trust’s editorial standards committee, said: ‘We’re keen to see if improvements can be made . . . both in the scope of coverage to provide a fuller picture of events, and in providing better context for audiences.
'We’ll ask the director of news to report back to us with an update in the autumn.’
