More poor journalism: BBC Syria photo
Last time I pointed out Rob Shephard‘s lack of research when he used a tweet as a primary source.
This time around it’s the BBC. That bastion of accuracy impartiality and standard…. , hold on, let me finish before you start shouting at the screen.
Yep, so the BBC, one of the most popular news sites on the Internet and known for it fairness and ethical standards…., I said, hold on, just let me finish. Jeez, some people are sooooo impatient.
Right, the BBC have made a cock-up. There got it out. Now you can shout.
The mistake is not a major one mind you, but it still shows that the BBC is at the same level as the Guardian and Daily Mail in terms of accuracy and journalistic standards.
In a story covering the recent slaughter in Syria the BBC used a picture showing rows of bodies in shrouds which is the usual method of preparing a body for burial in Islam. Having got some of the news direct from activists in Syria they also seem to have got the image as well. The BBC, who probably thought that anyone who gives information and pictures to the BBC must be on the winning side and doesn’t need to use propaganda and false details, used the picture as is with just a little copyright style note to say “from activist”. They did put a caption to indicate that the photo had not been verified which is more a weasley legal nicety rather than anything to do with indicating that they are in the process of checking it.
As an indication that the verification was not really carried out properly, it took the BBC 9 hours before the picture was removed. In the usual BBC way, silently and with no notes about the story being updated. Though it did put out a notice saying “We were aware of this image being widely circulated on the internet in the early hours following the most recent atrocities in Syria. We used it with a clear disclaimer saying it could not be independently verified. Efforts were made overnight to track down the original source of the image and when it was established the picture was inaccurate we removed it immediately.”
Was the long period due to the BBC having to double check with various obscure photo agencies that the photo was not already copyrighted? Nope. I just dragged the original image into Google Images and immediately it suggested that the photo was by Marco Di Lauro and also available from Getty Images. It took me 9 seconds, not 9 hours.
The original picture was taken 6 years ago and is from the Iraq war.
The BBC have access to Getty Images and could even have used their own image recognition service (PicScout) to check the photo’s attribution. So they used a nicked copy of the photo and put the wrong copyright notice on it, even though they had the rights to use the original.
Lazy journalism. Yep. Accurate journalism. Nope. The BBC seem to have picked up tips from the Daily Mail on journalism and have done the publish first and fast and then get the accuracy right (but only if someone notices and complains) method.
-
1
June 2, 2012 at 07:20 -
Excellent stuff Sad – well spotted!
Meanwhile, millions of people world wide have turned to that beacon of excellence, the BBC, to learn the truth of what is happening in Syria, and formed their opinions accordingly…
Dick Puddlecote has a superb piece up today http://dickpuddlecote.blogspot.fr/2012/06/jewel-robbing-spotted-in-guardian.html
detailing the dishonesty of some Guardian journalists – why aren’t bloggers being called to the Leveson show trial, they have been scrupulously recording the unethical practices of the main stream media for years, this is the sort of thing which should be shown in evidence there. -
3
June 2, 2012 at 11:35 -
Journalists simply don’t have the time to verify facts.
I simply dont have the credulity to believe what journalists write.
-
4
June 2, 2012 at 13:55 -
It is wrong to compare inacuracies at The Mail and to a lesser extent The Graun, with inacuracies at the BBC.
If I think the Mail is a hopeless rag, I am not compelled to buy it
. I am however, on pain of imprisonment, theoretically forced to buy the bbc and pay for its seven thousand odd employees, several thousand of whom are supposed to be journalists.
For thirty or forty years, going back to the Philby era, the bbc has been exclusively recruiting personnel with a sympathy towards left wing idealism and has , as a result, remorselessly pushed an agenda which is largely responsible for the broken society, with its massive bureaucratic burden, which is the UK today.
So, no surprises over the whoopsie with the photo here !-
5
June 2, 2012 at 19:30 -
Well said Backwoodsman, trouble is the BBC still have such a strangle hold on the nation.
I would like to see the BBC sold off and the licence fee scrapped -
6
June 3, 2012 at 12:18 -
Backwoodsman, perhaps the MI5 vetting officer at the BBC was a Soviet spy as well (tinfoil hat time)? Or perhaps, “leftwing” idealists are attracted to the news media, just as “rightwing” sell their grannies for a quid barrowboys prefer to work in the city. Both mobs f***ed up
the country.
I prefer the view that the interweb has enabled the individual to weave news threads together and make their own reality/truth tapestries – because it’s my opinion.
-
-
7
June 2, 2012 at 20:57 -
Oops! Time was the BBC was the bastion of journalistic truth… Have standards slipped so badly?
-
8
June 3, 2012 at 08:04 -
If the BBC cannot be trusted to display the highest standard of impartiality and reporting accuracy, it has no purpose.
I think the more informal styles of interviewing and broadcasting have inevitably led to bias, based on the lefty liberal attitudes of the media luvvies. There aren’t many Kelvin Mckenzies in the BBC.
Or is it me, getting a lot more intolerant with age?
No. We do need an independent and trusted high quality public broadcaster.
We don’t have one.-
9
June 3, 2012 at 12:45
-
-
10
June 3, 2012 at 12:07 -
Have you seen the story about the BBC and its logo for the United Nations Security Council … ahem, it’s United Space Command from a children’s computer game. Still, a google search for UNSC counts as world class journalism if a press release isn’t provided.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }