We need to talk about the ‘flat out lie’ the BBC told last night. Because it was appalling.

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On 3 April, Twitter users accused the BBC of telling a “flat out lie” on News at Six, and echoing right-wing propaganda in the process. And they were not impressed.

The controversy related to an article from Guido Fawkes, which had attacked left-wing Jewish group Jewdas. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn had attended the group’s Seder (a traditional Passover feast), so the “hard right” gossip-factory hit out at Jewdas for criticising right-wingers who use antisemitism as a political football.

In the wake of the Guido Fawkes piece, Jewdas clarified:

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The BBC, however, apparently didn’t get that memo. On 3 April’s BBC News at Six – broadcast hours after the above tweet, the outlet said that Jewdas had “argued that there’s no problem with antisemitism in Labour”:

Not only has Jewdas not argued that, but it has actually fought consistently against antisemitism on both the right and left. As people pointed out after the Guido Fawkes attack piece:

Britain rightly expects the BBC – which is teaching our kids how to identify ‘fake news’ – to have much higher standards of fact-checking. But people have also criticised the broadcaster for falling short in its mission to present “due impartiality in our news” – especially when it comes to Conservative politicians.

Meanwhile, Boris…

While failing to get the facts right in its coverage of Jewdas, the BBC should perhaps have been paying more attention to revelations that suggest foreign secretary Boris Johnson has been twisting the truth himself.

On 3 April, Sky News interviewed the chief executive of Britain’s defence research facility at Porton Down, and he confirmed that the facility had not proven that Russia made the nerve agent responsible for the Salisbury attack in March:

Boris Johnson, however, had previously said in an interview that Porton Down had confirmed to him that Russia was definitely the source of the nerve agent. When asked how he knew the source was Russia, he said:

People from Porton Down… were absolutely categorical. And I asked the guy myself. I said, ‘are you sure?’ And he said, ‘there’s no doubt’.

And people are not impressed with Boris Johnson apparently deceiving them:

https://twitter.com/alexnunns/status/981240232438915072

https://twitter.com/alexnunns/status/981237830755278848

Both the BBC and Boris Johnson have serious questions to answer. And Britain should demand answers from them both – because we all deserve so much better.

Get Involved!

– You can find out how to complain to the BBC here, and contact Boris Johnson here.

– Support The Canary, so we can keep exposing the propaganda and hypocrisy of political and media elites.

– Also see our full coverage of the media attacks on Jewdas.

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