Dear BBC,
@BBCbreakfast informs us you are setting up “BBC Verity”, to tell us all about “disinformation”.
Headed up by Marianna Spring, herself a prime purveyor thereof.
She has said of Twitter “it’s unleashed a wave of hate”, which I say -- me, a daily Twitter user following several hundred of various persuasions -- is simply nonsense. It’s disinformation! And now she’s going to go “undercover” (!) to troll people! For disinformation? Which, btw, is against TOS of Social Media platforms, and may even be illegal. Puleeease!
Spring, gives us a presentation where the only disinformation is by the “Far right” and only by non-government non-legacy media. Nothing from the Left and nothing about the government lies (disinformation) about things like WMDs in Iraq. I remember those, and I remember how BBC went along with Blair and Colin Powell and didn’t look into it. Disinformation by omission. And, By the way, this could have been known at the time, by anyone, including even the BBC, had they wanted to. I saw it with my own eyes, when Powell made his presentation to the United Nations and thought it was nonsense. Where was the BBC?
More recently, how many ways has the BBC misinformed us? Let me count the ways:
Multiple reports of “BBC fake news” in India.
Failure to identify terrorist figures in the reinstalled Afghani Taliban government, 8 September 2021: "The corporation simply ‘forgot' to mention that the selected ministers were on the US terror watch list. In fact, it did not even mention Pakistan or the ISI once in their profile.” [Here]. Disinformation by omission.
No mention by Ms Spring of the Twitter files, that revealed the extent of pre-Musk censorship, including from the government. Nothing of that, even from the “Disinformation expert”, Ms Spring, in her 21 March 2023 Panorama story about today’s Twitter. Disinformation by omission. [Here]
Telling us that the Lab Leak Theory was a conspiracy theory. It wasn’t. Disinformation by commission.
Misinforming us about the size of anti lockdown demonstrations in the UK -- playing down their numbers and alleging -- without evidence -- that they were far-right. Ms Spring again. Misinformation by misdirection.
Telling us there were whole wards full of children with Covid. Disinformation by commission. [Here]
Failing to report on the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020 and failing to report on the intelligence community burying the story (it was clear at the time what was going on, if you wanted to know), and Joe Biden falsely quoting that it was Russian disinformiton during his debate. Disinformation by omission.
Failing to report that the Russia Collusion was a hoax from the beginning and the extent of the FBI involvement (it was clear at the time). Disinformation by omission
Failure to report on Hillary Clinton involvement in creating the Russia Hoax, that lasted six years to date (and hasn’t stopped her pushing the hoax, still, to this day). Again, this was known at the time, if you’d wanted to know. Disinformation by omission.
This “disinformation expert” title is a made-up expertise, with no qualifications. It’s a nonsense.
Please give it up. Or pull the other leg. Honestly.
Focus on providing information. No need to bother us with your views on “disinformation”. No need for you to Verify. No need for our own Nina Jankowicz. The unlamented “disinformation czarina” in the US. Follow their example and ditch the idea. Please.
References:
BBC Verify mocked by the lefties in the US.
Laurie Wastell: "The BBC crusade for online censorship”. Includes lots of spicy info on Marianna Spring, head of this new BBC Verify disinformation wheeze. Eg: Wastell quotes Spring: "‘it is not about giving equal weight to views where one is false and one is true’. It seems that as long as Spring feels she has truth on her side, she feels she has no duty to air alternative perspectives."
Kathleen Stock: “The BBC’s phoney war on disinformation”. Clip: "According to Spring, online disinformation and hate speech is getting worse, and it’s the responsibility of social media platforms to regulate it more heavily.” Me to Spring: no, no, and no.
Frank Haviland: “Who’s verifying BBC Verify?” Quote: "The BBC reporting of Brexit was in fact so biased that even the BBC admitted they broke their own impartiality rules.” And.... “BBC Verify has little to do with exposing misinformation, and more to do with discrediting truths (sorry, ‘conspiracy theories’) the establishment disapproves of.”
ADDED: If you enter “BBC Verify” to YouTube, all you get is mocking Vids. There’s not a single one that’s positive. EG: Redacted, GB News. TalkTV. Mahyar Tousi. Ezra Levant. Jimmy Dore. And it shouldn’t be. This whole “disinformation” thing is a nonsense, used to shut down what they don’t like, on the Left. There’s none of this push from the Right. At least AFAIK.
So, even on censorship-friendly YouTube, there’s not a single positive result for a search on "BBC Verify”.
