122
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Fitik@fedia.io to c/world@lemmy.world

International editor says he doesn't 'feel particularly bad about' his inaccuracies

BBC’s international editor Jeremy Bowen admits he ‘got it wrong’ in his coverage saying the Gaza Al-Alhi hospital was "flattened" (it was never even bombed), but still said he “doesn’t regret one thing” about his reporting and doesn't feel particularly bad.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago

No. The programme as a whole said responsibility hadn’t been determined. The news was breaking as Bowen was on air - he didn’t say anything about responsibility

[-] ZahzenEclipse@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think I just have to agree to disagree. It's a simple philosophy problem in my head

"Hospital got flattened"

"Hamas doesn't have munitions to flatten hospital"

"Israel flattened the hospital"

If you're reporting about a flattened hospital in Gaza, you're tactically supporting the idea Israel did it by simply reporting that a hospital got flattened. It also shouldn't suprise you that's how many people online ran with it.

[-] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

The report of a massive explosion outside the hospital would have lead the same people who made assumptions about Israel being responsible to assume that Israel was responsible.

[-] ZahzenEclipse@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah it would lead neutral observers to beleive Israel flattened a hospital since they are the only ones immediately in the region with the munitions to do so. Both things can be true

[-] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

But there was a massive explosion outside the hospital. Are you really saying that that shouldn’t have been reported with the caveat ‘we don’t know who is responsible’ because people would have assumed it was Israel ?

[-] ZahzenEclipse@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

No, im saying the reporting the explosion in the parking lot of a hospital as "flattening the hospital" was irresponsible and it's no wonder it would make people think Israel blew it up by simply stating those things as facts. It was irresponsible to report it this way, especially since there was no evidence to suggest that was the case.

[-] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeh. We agree, he fucked up by making a hasty assumption about the hospital explosion, based on the drone footage he was seeing.

I’m saying that if he had reported accurately- a large explosion outside of the hospital - people would still have made the same assumption that Israeli action caused it.

[-] ZahzenEclipse@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

You're probably right but I think the bigger issue is he can use cover of "well people would have ran with whatever narrative anyways so it's really not relevant to people jumping to that conclusion." In my opinion, we 100% should criticize him and recognize that it helped foster the sentiment it was an Israeli attack. Either way, the bigger issue is he doesn't think he did anything wrong reporting that way and I think thats a problem. Appreciate the back and forth.

[-] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Appreciate the back and forth.

Likewise. Thank you for making me think - I'm still pondering now.

Edit: If you want to see the source interview with Bowen, it's quite interesting. It's hear https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0gts7c1/behind-the-stories-on-the-front-line-jeremy-bowen - start at 14:30.

He's asked if he regrets anything he said that evening and he says no - then he's challenged on the "flattened" comment and he says "Oh yeh - well, I got that wrong. I was looking at the pictures .... and that was my conclusion looking at the pictures and I was wrong on that".

He basically comes across as pissed off that the Israeli's wont open the borders so that reporters can observe directly. But yes - he should have started with "that was a cockup on my part"

this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
122 points (87.7% liked)

World News

39129 readers
907 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS