It's not about what the BBC call ISIS, it's about the DG having the political idiocy to say that the BBC has the same duty of impartiality to blood curling mass murdering terrorists as it has to legitimate representative political groups or anyone else, down to terming them 'Islamic' when all official Islamic groups denounce them. The BBC has no legal or regulated duty of impartiality to ISIS or any such foreign terrorist group anywhere, Lord Hall was just making that up. It has a duty to report facts accurately, that is all.
On Radio 4 last night the BBC news led with the story that it is 'feared' (but not known that) a 'British' family of 12 have gone to Syria, yet only fourth in the running order was the repatriation ceremony of the bodies of British citizens mass-murdered in Tunisia - the biggest loss of Britons to terrorism in a decade and the main headline story on all outlets of the last week. No other news organisation put this story so low in priority nor elevated the other item so high. One has to ask who the BBC thinks it is serving and how it comes up with this prioritising of news items. Why on earth would this story of a family (which is largely middle aged and elderly and not young men armed to the teeth) going to Syria take precedence over everything else including the crisis in Greece which affects hundreds of thousands of British holidaymakers directly this week and next and will affect our whole country no matter what Greece or the EU do next?! |