Mick Hartley

From a Times report on the problems facing BBC Verify, and the ongoing war of words with the White House:

Despite the focus on Verify, some consider the criticism it faces to be a symptom of the BBC’s wider failure to properly report on events in Gaza.

“No one turns to Verify after it has done a bit of geo-locating and says ‘The wool has now fallen from my eyes and I can see clearly’,” said one senior journalist.

“Hamas is a body that routinely lies and executes people it doesn’t like, but we treat them as if they’re of equal status to a democratically elected government that runs an open society. Impartiality does not mean neutrality — it means truthfulness.”

John Ware, the former BBC Panorama reporter, called the broadcaster’s coverage of events in Gaza “quite timid”.

“[No] programme has spent any time in the Palestinian Authority, looking at the official outlets, which almost daily spew out the most revolting antisemitic tropes,” said Ware.

For the BBC only one side is guilty of spewing hatred, and it isn't the Palestinians.