A cross-party debate by MPs this afternoon saw the BBC accused of “comprehensively failing” the public; inflaming community tensions; fuelling antisemitism and harming diplomatic efforts in an astonishing verbal firing squad.
The public broadcaster came under fire, as MP after MP piled in with allegations that the corporation has “led to a spike in antisemitism globally”, after one inaccurate report about the bombing of the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza lead to the burning of synagogues in Tunisia and Germany.
The debate was started by former minister Sir Michael Ellis, who opened the debate into the government’s role in upholding the impartiality of BBC news coverage.
However discussion quickly focussed in on the BBC’s repeated failures to neutrally report the Israel-Hamas war, as well as Gary Lineker’s alleged repeated breaches of BBC social media rules.
Sir Michael cited multiple examples of allegedly biased content from the BBC since the eruption of the Middle East conflict in October, including its failure to identify Hamas as a terrorist group.
He called them out for hypocrisy, after the BBC News website later reported on a “terror attack in Brussels linked to Daesh”.
In refusing to call the group terrorists, Sir Michael accused the corporation of becoming “complicit in Hamas’ well-orchestrated disinformation campaign”.
Their coverage of the attack on the Al-Ahli hospital was cited by multiple MPs, with Theresa Villiers accusing the BBC’s “rush to accept the Hamas allegation that it was caused by Israel” of creating real-life problems on the ground.
Tory Steve Double said the Al-Ahli example “felt like the BBC couldn’t wait to jump to the conclusion it must have been Israel, and they were almost disappointed when it came out that it clearly wasn’t”.
The BBC’s alledged failure to distinguish between civilian and military combatants in Gaza was also blasted, with the corporation accused of lapping up casualty figures from the terrorist-controlled Hamas health ministry.
Sir Michael claimed that the BBC is now “complicit in peddling misinformation and allowing antisemitism to fester” in Britain and across the globe.
He also alledged that the BBC is now institutionally antisemitic, and said time has come to finally remove the BBC’s ability to mark its own editorial homework.
Gary Lineker also faced his share of criticism after allegedly repeated breaches of the corporation’s strict social media guidelines.
Leeds MP Alec Shelbrooke said the BBC’s editorial rules are being “completely undermined” by Mr Lineker’s frequent desire to “whack two fingers” up at his bosses’ guidelines.
Mr Lineker – referred to by DUP MP Gregory Campbell as “Gary ‘multimillionaire lefty’ Lineker” – was also slammed for specific social media posts about the Israel-Gaza conflict with his 8.9 million followers that later turned out to be half-truths.
Examples cited included the football commentator’s sharing of a video with the accusation Israel was committing genocide; and the mourning the death of a Palestinian footballer who was later revealed to be a “martyr fighter for Hamas”.
MPs accused the highly-paid BBC star of making “a mockery of new social media guidelines”, which were only recently drawn up in response to another Gary Lineker-sparked controversy.
Mr Campbell accused the BBC of endorsing “whatever the woke agenda, whatever the leftist agenda is” or turning a “blind eye” when there’s a breach of some guidelines.
Mr Shellbrooke claimed that his Jewish constituents are “bloody terrified” now, largely thanks to the perceived “inbuilt bias with the BBC”.
He claimed his Jewish voters see the BBC as almost trying to justify those launching antisemitic attacks against them; while Humberside MP Andrew Percy cited a poll that said 77 percent off Jews do not believe the BBC’s coverage of the war has been fair, and that should be taken “as a cry of pain from the Jewish community”.
Mr Shelbrooke warned that if the BBC loses further confidence from licence fee payers, many will simply stop paying the telly tax “and damn the consequences”, drawing a potential comparison between such a rebellion and the Poll Tax, which was dropped after many refused to pay it.
Minister Julia Lopez said the BBC is “not there as an instrument of Government, where ministers seek to interfere with editorial decisions or the day-to-day running of the organisation”.
She said she wouldn’t “stick the boot” into the BBC on certain issues as it risks undermining trust in the corporation.
A BBC spokesperson said: “We don’t agree with this opinion which we reject entirely and is not borne out by the facts.”
Mr Lineker was approached for comment.
