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Update on my very simple and straightforward complaint/question to the BiBiC

Posted by Ed on April 10, 2025, 12:24 am

Fecks sake, you'd have thought I'd asked them a complicated and difficult question...couldn't have been simpler!
In a few words it was "After all this time, why are BBC journalists still saying that Hamas killed 1200 people on October 7th 2023, when the world and his dog know that is just not true."

Anyway, after three weeks I sent them a reminder and got the same old bollox.

quote:
We’re sorry you have not yet received an answer to your complaint and needed to contact us about it.

Your complaint was forwarded to the BBC division responsible when you first complained but we are still waiting for them to reply. Although we reply to over 90% of complaints within our target period, there are always some which we regret take longer than this for practical reasons. It could be because the details of your complaint are taking time to investigate, or that the relevant people are now working on another programme or have other production deadlines to meet. Sometimes it can also be that staff are away on location or on a break following an intensive production schedule and so are not available to reply within this time

We have contacted them again to remind them that you are still waiting for a reply and will respond as soon as we can. In the meantime thank you for contacting us and we apologise for the delay.

Kind regards

BBC Complaints Team

Re: Update on my very simple and straightforward complaint/question to the BiBiC

Posted by marknadim on April 10, 2025, 3:42 am, in reply to "Update on my very simple and straightforward complaint/question to the BiBiC"

well done for persevering; they count on people giving up

Re: Update on my very simple and straightforward complaint/question to the BiBiC

Posted by RaskolnikovX on April 10, 2025, 6:17 am, in reply to "Re: Update on my very simple and straightforward complaint/question to the BiBiC"

That's exactly how it's designed; to make you give up and for them to never have to even pretend to answer or be accountable.

They should never be allowed to forget their complicity in this genocide. Well done for keeping that thorn in their side.

The corporate media are complicit in the Gaza genocide.
Never forget what they did. Never forgive them for it.

Re: Update on my very simple and straightforward complaint/question to the BiBiC

Posted by marknadim on April 10, 2025, 8:51 am, in reply to "Re: Update on my very simple and straightforward complaint/question to the BiBiC"

Good to share here as well.
We never know the real number of individual complaints.

Another keyword search: 'hannibal directive'...

Posted by Ian M on April 10, 2025, 2:05 pm, in reply to "Re: Update on my very simple and straightforward complaint/question to the BiBiC"

...turns up a single result from 2015, reporting on Amnesty Intl. findings of war crimes in operation cast lead:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-33700343[i]

'The Israeli military invoked an order known as the Hannibal Directive, unleashing massive firepower to try to prevent Hamas from taking Lt Goldin hostage.

Amnesty said the implementation of the directive "led to the ordering of unlawful attacks on civilians". It said 75 children were among those killed.

"There is strong evidence that Israeli forces committed war crimes in their relentless and massive bombardment of residential areas of Rafah in order to foil the capture of Lt Hadar Goldin, displaying a shocking disregard for civilian lives," said Amnesty director Philip Luther.'

Formulating it as 'known as' indicates the author views it as widely understood, including by the BBC - ie: not some crazy conspiracy made up by Amnesty. The usual barrage of Israeli denials tagged on, but the article is striking for its condemnatory, unequivocal tone, at least compared to how the beeb have aggressively laundered Israel's atrocities and ignored verified reality since Oct 7th. Also telling that there has been no mention of the hannibal directive since then, in spite of admissions by Israeli officials that it was in fact implemented.

Clearly they've been on a very tight leash.

cheers, and kudos to Ed for putting them in an awkward spot.
I

Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously
http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/

Re: Update on my very simple and straightforward complaint/question to the BiBiC

Posted by Ed on April 10, 2025, 5:08 pm, in reply to "Re: Update on my very simple and straightforward complaint/question to the BiBiC"

I wish I had taken a screenshot of that page and the "Hamas killed 1200" statement.
As I said over a week ago, I have since visited the page in question and that has been edited out and it now just says "1200" people were killed although there is no notification on the page that it has been edited, which according to the BBC rules etc, they always indicate if the item in question is not just a spelling mistake or something trivial like that.
Maybe they see lying about the number of people Hamas killed on Oct 7th to make the zionazis look better is a trivial matter to them.
Anyway, I always have the feeling they might get back to me and say "What are you talking about, it doesn't say that in the article at all"!

They are obviously *that* slippery ..

Posted by t on April 10, 2025, 5:17 pm, in reply to "Re: Update on my very simple and straightforward complaint/question to the BiBiC"

One option is to use the Wayback Machine:

https://archive.org/web/web-advancedsearch.php

Alternatively, next time, do take screenshots, as you suggest.

Re: They are obviously *that* slippery ...found it!

Posted by Ed on April 10, 2025, 6:00 pm, in reply to "They are obviously *that* slippery .."

Thanks for the link t but the date parameters are outside of the ones I wanted. It did however inspire me to do a bit more digging.

So, the bastards had me doubting my own eyes for a bit there but found the original piece in all its glory on "The Rising Nepal" website, of all places! Had never heard of it!
It's still got the original passage up and a hat tip to the BBC for the story so they won't be able to do the old "you should have gone to specsavers" bollox.
Funnily enough, I can't find the article at all on the official BBC news website now, the original or the revised one.

quote:
The latest war between Israel and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when Hamas killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, with 251 taken hostage.

https://risingnepaldaily.com/news/58830

Newssniffer has the goods...

Posted by Ian M on April 10, 2025, 6:31 pm, in reply to "Re: They are obviously *that* slippery ...found it!"

https://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/2763440/diff/7/8

Looks like the article went through 11 revisions, some of them quite drastic. The paragraph you picked up on was altered on the original publishing date of March 18th, from:

'The latest war between Israel and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when Hamas killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, with 251 taken hostage.' (from version 2, 02:15)

to:

'The war between Israel and Hamas was triggered by Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people - mostly civilians - were killed, and 251 others taken hostage.' (version 8, 11:40)

Good old reliable passive voice, eh? Didn't have that when they were accusing Hamas.

Interesting looking through the other changes, notably removing a Hamas statement accusing Israel of 'treachery' for violating the ceasefire (ver 7-8), and removing a description of a Palestinian man pulling people out of the rubble, including the body of his daughter (ver 9-10).

Here's the article in its current form:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9vy3k4dpz0o

cheers,
I

Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously
http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/

Re: Newssniffer has the goods...

Posted by Ed on April 10, 2025, 6:58 pm, in reply to "Newssniffer has the goods..."

Thanks Ian.
I didn't think Newssniffer was going any more...good to know it still is!

The BiBiC state:
"If an article has been edited since publication to correct a material inaccuracy, a note will be added at the end of the text to signal to the reader there has been an amendment or correction with the date of that change. If there is a small error in a story that does not alter its editorial meaning (eg name misspelling), the correction will be made without an additional note."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/help-41670342

I've looked carefully but cannot see any "note" referring to these 11 revisions. Wonder why that is...genuine question.
In addition, I see the latest incarnation has an additional hack added to the writing line up...no note about that, either.

So, there is time for 11 revisions...but not time to write a simple reply to a reader's simple question!
25 days now!

Of course, in the scheme of things my complaint hardly matters and won't change anything, I am well aware of that but it's always instructive with these things as they throw a little light on the "accountability" and "honesty" bollox that the BiBiC always likes to shout about.

Re: Newssniffer has the goods...

Posted by Ian M on April 10, 2025, 8:51 pm, in reply to "Re: Newssniffer has the goods..."

Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised to see it's still going, haven't used it for years...

'Of course, in the scheme of things my complaint hardly matters and won't change anything, I am well aware of that but it's always instructive with these things as they throw a little light on the "accountability" and "honesty" bollox that the BiBiC always likes to shout about.' - well, they might not have changed it at all if you hadn't sent in the complaint, so that's a small victory. I doubt it means they'll stop using the talking point of 'Hamas killed 1200 people on Oct 7th', or ever explain in depth the responsibility of the IOF for many of those deaths. But as you say the point is to expose them for their toxic role in this & on other issues and drive more people away from them, because their behaviour as state/corporate propagandists is fundamentally beyond reform.

cheers,
I

Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously
http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/

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