Watchdog Blasts BBC Coverage of Jerusalem Stabbing Spree, Forces Corrections
A media watchdog group slammed the BBC for its reportage of Saturday night’s bloody terror attack in Jerusalem, in which a knife-wielding Palestinian killed two Israelis and left the wife and baby of one of them seriously wounded, and the British outlet was forced to change its headline – three times.
BBC Watch, an affiliate of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, exposed the headline – “Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills two” – for failing to reflect what actually happened during the murderous rampage, making it sound as though the perpetrator had been a victim of Israeli security forces.
“[This] is not only a prime example of the ‘last-first reporting’ regularly employed by the BBC, but of course fails to clarify to audiences that the dead Palestinian was the terrorist who killed two people (later named as father of seven Rabbi Nechemia Lavi and father of two Rabbi Aharon Benita) and wounded a mother and her two-year-old son,” wrote BBC Watch in a dispatch on the coverage.
“Predictably, that headline prompted considerable protest on social media,” the dispatch went on. “And shortly after its publication, the title was changed to one displaying yet another regular feature of BBC reporting; the use of superfluous punctuation.”
The changed headline read as follows: “Jerusalem attack: Israelis killed in Old City ‘by Palestinian.’” (Read more from “Watchdog Blasts BBC Coverage of Jerusalem Stabbing Spree, Forces Corrections” HERE)
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