BBC is biased against Israel and has been taken over by a ‘radical generation’, says former Panorama producer – The Jewish Chronicle

BBC is biased against Israel and has been taken over by a ‘radical generation’, says former Panorama producer  The Jewish Chronicle

A former senior producer of Panorama has accused the BBC of bias against Israel, saying it has been taken over by a “new, more radical generation”. Phil Craig, who worked for the corporation for two decades, made the remark at the public debate festival Battle of Ideas in London last weekend. He said that once the organisation had held its reporters to “super high standards” but had come under the sway of people with partisan views, the Telegraph reported. “Of course, news makes mistakes. We all know news coverage, it can be faulted. There are wars, people spin them, both sides spin, and there’s propaganda,” he said. He added: “But all the mistakes in this particular war seem to be in the same direction.

Mistakes of hiring people with incredibly partisan views.” Craig cited the broadcaster’s coverage of the major explosion at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza early in the Israel-Hamas conflict, when a BBC correspondent suggested on air that Israel was to blame. A consensus later emerged that it had been caused by a misfired Hamas rocket. The BBC later apologised for the reporter’s comments. Craig said: “It really worried me. I suspect the thing that caused all this is group-think. It’s a new generation, perhaps, a new, more radical generation, young people, activists, people insufficiently policed, insufficiently