BBC’s Jeremy Bowen admits he ‘got it wrong’ in Gaza hospital report but has ‘no regrets’
Fitik@fedia.io to 
telegraph.co.uk
International editor says he doesn't 'feel particularly bad about' his inaccuracies
BBC’s international editor Jeremy Bowen admits he ‘got it wrong’ in his coverage saying the Gaza Al-Alhi hospital was "flattened" (it was never even bombed), but still said he “doesn’t regret one thing” about his reporting and doesn't feel particularly bad.
His inaccuracies: blaming Israel for the al-Shifa missile attack, and referring to the hospital as, "flattened."
I've seen people repeating these inaccuracies constantly on Lemmy.
He didn't blame the attach on Israel. He did say it had been flattened.
His claim of it being flattened caused the BBC to report that it was likely Israel who did it because they were the only ones who had ordinance powerful enough to level a hospital:
So you agree that he did not say that IDF were to blame?
I admit, I was surprised at how many people are indifferent to the truth (at best) regarding this conflict. I know some people in real life who see a lot of antisemitism in modern American society and I used to think they were paranoid but now I'm not sure what else could be motivating this sort of motivated reasoning.
The problem is, that Israel made it relatively easy to fall for these stories by doing similar things for real in the past.
So you've got a credible source (BBC) reporting something that's not really unheard of (i.e. kind of plausible) and that's happening to align with what you've already suspected. Bam, rumor is born.
BTW, you had the same mechanism shortly after the attacks with the "Hamas beheaded babies" stories.
Criticizing Israel’s atrocities is not antisemitism it’s being a decent human being.
But being a Hamas terrorist boltlicker is pretty shitty.
I don’t support Hamas, why would you think that?
You don't know what could possibly cause people to have an anti-Israel bias other than antisemitism? Maybe a history book?
Beheaded babies and the IDF saying “we have lied before but not this time.” really muddies the water.
Do you mean the Al-Alhi Baptist missile or did one happen to Al-shifa now too?
Also this title sucks ass, not alluding to what was wrong and leaving your mind to fill it in
luckily there's an entire article hiding behind the title!
Looks more like a paywall to me.
Weird, I didn't have one. Maybe it's regional?
Edit: I'm US based so maybe there is a paywall in other countries
No paywall in Canada.
Maybe, I do have paywall in Israel.
You can read without paywall there
Agree, I wanted to edit it for it to say what have he said but rules state to not change the title.
You could put it in the body.
Actually that's a great idea, thanks, I'll do it right now!
Dude shares the name of an ex. The headline threw me for a loop.
Welcome to Whose Truth is it Anyway?, where the news is made up and the facts don't matter.
Oh well as long as you don't feel bad about it man
To be clear Bowen did not from my recollection say that the strike was from Israeli. He did, however, incorrectly say that the hispital had been "flattened" based in drone footage he was looking at on screen.
I mean technically yes but it's one of those things where you're saying Israel did it without saying it directly. Its really not much better.
No. The programme as a whole said responsibility hadn’t been determined. The news was breaking as Bowen was on air - he didn’t say anything about responsibility
I think I just have to agree to disagree. It's a simple philosophy problem in my head
"Hospital got flattened"
"Hamas doesn't have munitions to flatten hospital"
"Israel flattened the hospital"
If you're reporting about a flattened hospital in Gaza, you're tactically supporting the idea Israel did it by simply reporting that a hospital got flattened. It also shouldn't suprise you that's how many people online ran with it.
The report of a massive explosion outside the hospital would have lead the same people who made assumptions about Israel being responsible to assume that Israel was responsible.
Yeah it would lead neutral observers to beleive Israel flattened a hospital since they are the only ones immediately in the region with the munitions to do so. Both things can be true
But there was a massive explosion outside the hospital. Are you really saying that that shouldn’t have been reported with the caveat ‘we don’t know who is responsible’ because people would have assumed it was Israel ?
No, im saying the reporting the explosion in the parking lot of a hospital as "flattening the hospital" was irresponsible and it's no wonder it would make people think Israel blew it up by simply stating those things as facts. It was irresponsible to report it this way, especially since there was no evidence to suggest that was the case.
Yeh. We agree, he fucked up by making a hasty assumption about the hospital explosion, based on the drone footage he was seeing.
I’m saying that if he had reported accurately- a large explosion outside of the hospital - people would still have made the same assumption that Israeli action caused it.
You're probably right but I think the bigger issue is he can use cover of "well people would have ran with whatever narrative anyways so it's really not relevant to people jumping to that conclusion." In my opinion, we 100% should criticize him and recognize that it helped foster the sentiment it was an Israeli attack. Either way, the bigger issue is he doesn't think he did anything wrong reporting that way and I think thats a problem. Appreciate the back and forth.
Likewise. Thank you for making me think - I'm still pondering now.
Edit: If you want to see the source interview with Bowen, it's quite interesting. It's hear https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0gts7c1/behind-the-stories-on-the-front-line-jeremy-bowen - start at 14:30.
He's asked if he regrets anything he said that evening and he says no - then he's challenged on the "flattened" comment and he says "Oh yeh - well, I got that wrong. I was looking at the pictures .... and that was my conclusion looking at the pictures and I was wrong on that".
He basically comes across as pissed off that the Israeli's wont open the borders so that reporters can observe directly. But yes - he should have started with "that was a cockup on my part"
And Trump did not tell the traitors to stormthe building, amiright?
Jesus, the way you Hamas bootlickers refuse to listen to anything that disagrees with your agenda reminds me of the MAGA crowd. In fact it is the same thing, just on the left.
I was correcting a factual inaccuracy. If you can find anything in my post history that suggests that I support Hamas, then feel free to point it out. Otherwise - zip it.
I am, however a fan of the BBC - and while it is far from perfect, I'm happy to defend it where the Telepgraph gets it wrong.
Maybe lemmy.ml will unban me now that they can see I was right all along.
I wonder how all those cringy hamas whiners feel now? If they even think about how wrong they were.
I don't think that most of them care. It's like the Musk and Starlink incident. People rather stick with the original story even when it turns out to be false.
International editor doesn't understand how media works.