Phillips: The Protocols of the BBC
BBC Radio’s handling of the nasty antisemitism posted on their message board is an example of a thoroughly corrupt organization with no accountability whatsoever, and the situation has only gotten worse since we posted about it. Melanie Phillips brings us up to date: The protocols of the BBC.
A few days later on the Harry’s Place website, ‘Mark’ revealed that when he complained that the Iron Naz post was antisemitic, the BBC replied: ‘We have decided that it does not contravene the House Rules and are going to leave it on site.’ I myself posted a comment on my own website at that point which took the BBC to task.
Readers then started posting up comments on the Five Live ‘thread’ referring to the coverage on my website, Harry’s Place and Little Green Footballs, another site that was running the story. But the BBC then removed all those comments under the standard rubric that they were being temporarily hidden while the moderator considered whether they had broken the house rules.
A reader who noticed what was happening then complained on the thread that these comments about a growing debate over the Iron Naz post had been removed. To his astonishment, that post too was removed ostensibly to see whether it had also ‘broken the house rules’.
A subsequent post by him providing a link to my website vanished a mere ten minutes after it appeared. But while all such reference to any criticism of the BBC was being thus removed, the hateful untruth about Jewish deceit of gentiles remained on display day after day.
Moreover, the BBC allowed Iron Naz to add to the thread: ‘I only follow what the respected scholars of Islam say. The Baba Mezia law specifically states you can lie to non-jews and non-jews, of gentiles, are inferior in all ways to jews… Chosen people to these guys means anyone who isnt chosen can be killed and/or treated worse then animals.’ (sic)
Suddenly, after more than five days his original post disappeared —presumably so that the moderator could at last consider whether it had broken the rules. But then, two days later, it was back. The BBC actually reposted it on its site —apparently deciding that yes, it was indeed acceptable to say that the Talmud tells all Jews to lie.
And to cap it all, this time it blocked all further comments from being posted on that thread — which, yet more mysteriously, it now chose to semi-hide by deleting its original title, The War on the Jews, and substituting the less than helpful heading ‘Hidden’. But it was still there, and with some extra effort could still be seen.
At the time of writing this column, therefore, the situation is that the BBC has deliberately republished an antisemitic libel — but censored all criticism of itself, blocked any further opportunity to post up fresh protests, and semi-concealed the whole discussion. By the time you read this, the situation may have changed again. On Monday evening, one of the posts referring to me mysteriously re-appeared — possibly because the BBC had been alerted that the press was sniffing around.