Yet the deeply antisemitic BBC has not issued an apology or a retraction.
“Jewish leaders are set to confront BBC chief Tim Davie to demand public apology over ‘colossal error’ in its report on anti-Semitic bus attack that suggested the victims used ‘anti-Muslim slurs,’” by Rory Tingle, MailOnline, December 31, 2021:
Jewish leaders are set to confront BBC chief Tim Davie to demand a public apology after an investigation revealed a ‘colossal error’ in its reporting of an anti-Semitic attack on Oxford Street.
Earlier this month, a video emerged of a group of men hurling abuse and spitting at a group of Jewish teenagers sitting inside a bus, before banging on the windows as it pulled away.
The incident was treated as a hate crime by police and was condemned by the Prime Minister and by the Mayor of London.
But in its original report, BBC News said ‘racial slurs about Muslims could be heard inside the bus’, a claim criticised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism.
And the board has now commissioned its own independent report by forensic audio experts and a linguist which concluded there were no anti-Muslim insults.
It found the phrase thought to be a slur was actually a Hebrew phrase, ‘Tikrah lemishu,ze dachuf’ meaning: ‘Call someone, it is urgent.’
Writing in the Jewish Chronicle, Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl described the BBC’s ‘misreporting’ as ‘a colossal error’, which ‘has added insult to injury in accusing victims of antisemitism of being guilty of bigotry themselves’.
She continued: ‘What takes this from an egregious failure to something far more sinister is the BBC’s behaviour when confronted with its mistake. Instead of admitting it was wrong, it has doubled and tripled down.’
Ms Van der Zyl demanded the corporation to publicly apologise, and said the Board of Deputies would be holding a meeting with Director General Tim Davie next month, which will include ‘a full and frank discussion of this issue’.
She said the corporation’s behaviour ‘raises serious questions about deep-seated biases within the BBC towards Israelis, and indeed towards Jews in general’.
The BBC is standing by its report of the incident, and a spokesman said: ‘Antisemitism is abhorrent. We strive to serve the Jewish community, and all communities across our country, fairly.
‘Our story was a factual report that overwhelmingly focused on the individuals the police want to identify; those who directed abuse at the bus.
‘There was a brief reference to a slur, captured in a video recording, that appeared to come from the bus. We consulted a number of Hebrew speakers in determining that the slur was spoken in English.
‘The brief reference to this was included so the fullest account of the incident was reported.’
Hundreds of Jews gathered outside Broadcasting House for a protest about the story two weeks ago, with attendees holding banners and chanting ‘BBC News where’s the proof!’ and ‘BBC News tell the truth!’
Dame Maureen Lipman encouraged people to join the demonstration ‘because you care, and you will be demonstrating against my often-times employer asking for parity with other victims of racism, prejudice and abuse’.
It came as the BBC was ranked third – behind Iran and the Palestinian terror group Hamas – in a ‘Global Antisemitism’ list compiled by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in the US….
