December 7, 2016 (The New Atlas) - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is British propaganda that has, since 1922, served the interests not of objectivity and truth, but of the British Empire and the special interests that constitute it.
Its history of impropriety is long and sordid. Its more recent activity has been increasingly depraved.
Over the course of several decades, the BBC coddled paedophile Jimmy Savile whose rape and abuse of children, some as young as eight years old, was known to BBC staff for years. No action during Savile's life were taken, and investigations into hundreds of cases of abuse only began after his death in 2011.
War Propaganda: Selling "WMDs" in Iraq and Fictional "Freedom Fighters" in Syria
In addition to harbouring a child rapist, the BBC as a matter of policy has engaged in war propaganda, most notably in recent years in the lead up to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Predicated on claims that the Iraqi government, then headed by President Saddam Hussein, maintained chemical and biological weapon programmes capable of threatening global security, the US, UK, several European nations and a symbolic collection of other "coalition" members, invaded and occupied the Middle Eastern nation, triggering a destructive civil war and claiming, by some estimates, up to a million lives.
Selling the war to the public was undertaken by the Western media, including the BBC, who in a 2002 Panorama broadcast would claim:
In the lead up to the war in Iraq, prominent analysts and even UN inspectors insisted that claims of Iraq possessing "weapons of mass destruction" (WMDs) were fabricated in order to create a pretext for war. The BBC and others intentionally drowned these pleas for truth with an incessant din of war propaganda and hysteria.
Since the war in Iraq, the BBC has played a prominent role in selling other Western military interventions including the 2011 US-led NATO bombardment of Libya that has left the nation fully in ruination.
It has also spared no effort in attempting to sell direct military intervention in Syria. It claims that "freedom fighters" are attempting to overthrow the "dictatorship" of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. Despite all evidence confirming these "freedom fighters" are actually foreign funded, armed, trained and indoctrinated members of various designated terrorist organisations, the BBC has sidestepped fact and crafted myriad fabrications preying on emotions rather than factual evidence including fictional characters such as "Gay Girl in Damascus."
"Her" alleged real name was Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari, but was later revealed to be neither gay, nor a girl or even located in Damascus (or Syria for that matter). Instead, the fictional character was created by an American man residing in the UK named Tom MacMaster.
The BBC in June of 2011 would even host the woman who's photo had been stolen by MacMaster to use for the fictional character, as well as a Syrian activist, in an attempt to explain why a "real activist" in Damascus would want to use someone else's photo, apparently in an effort to prolong the hoax.
The BBC would finally admit later that month in an article titled, "Syria Gay Girl in Damascus blog a hoax by US man," that:
The BBC in its article, "Meet the seven-year-old girl tweeting from Aleppo," would provide no evidence or information regarding how Alabed's identity, location and stories have been verified.
The BBC in Thailand
The BBC in Thailand, currently represented by Jonathan Head, also a member of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT), has also been involved in impropriety and fraud. In 2010, the BBC went through extraordinary lengths to conceal the presence of approximately 300 heavily armed militants operating inside of Bangkok, portraying the unfolding violence as they confronted government troops as the result of an unprovoked "crackdown" by the ruling government.
In 2015, when a powerful bomb detonated in the centre of Bangkok killing 20 and maiming many more, the BBC's Jonathan Head would travel to the crime scene to tamper with evidence in an attempt to undermine the ongoing investigation and humiliate both the police and the Thai government.
Earlier this year, amid a torrent of leaked documents regarding convicted financial criminal George Soros' Open Society Foundation, evidence regarding the FCCT's funding surfaced only to be initially denied by the BBC's Jonathan Head specifically.
Head would later backtrack, admitting that only "one" programme was funded by Open Society. Further investigation revealed Head, as well as the FCCT's president, Dominic Faulder, unequivocally lied, with the FCCT providing cover for the "The Indochina Media Memorial Foundation" (IMMF), funded by Open Society, sharing the same office as the FCCT and run directly by the FCCT's president, Dominic Faulder.
Currently, the BBC is engaged in propaganda aimed at undermining both the Thai government and the nation's head of state, King Maha Vajiralongkorn. The BBC has repeatedly and intentionally disseminated false information to create doubt and division amid Thailand's sensitive transition.
Lobbyists, Not Journalists. Fraud, Not Journalism
It is clear that globally, the BBC is engaged in lobbying. It promotes wars, regime change and other policies on behalf of special interests residing in both London and Washington. It uses the veneer of journalism to promote what is essentially lobbyist talking points. Using expensive studios, sharply dressed commentators and rolling out paid lobbyists posing as "experts," the BBC seeks to manipulate public perception, not inform it.
In the process, it has contributed to the destruction of entire nations, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, the ruination of millions of lives and the spectre of crisis looming over any and all nations that obstruct the ambitions of the special interests the BBC represents and lobbies for.
While the BBC in the United Kingdom is the British people's problem to confront and overcome, in nations like Thailand, the veneer of journalism must be legislatively peeled away. Allowing the BBC to continue operating as "journalists" using "journalistic credentials" undermines real journalism and the essential role it plays in informing the public and existing as a functional check and balance to political power.
The BBC's Jonathan Head in Thailand specifically, has tampered with evidence, committed fraud regarding the FCCT's funding and commits fraud each and every time he and his network presents lobbying as journalism. The BBC in Thailand, along with other members of the FCCT, work ceaselessly to lend credibility to US and European government funded fronts posing as "nongovernmental organisations" (NGOs). It is yet another example of how the BBC abuses journalism to perpetuate fraud and confusion.
Both Thais, and the global public abroad should be aware that as talk of "fake news" circulates, organisations like the BBC could easily be considered as one of the original "fake news" networks.
The New Atlas is a media platform providing geopolitical analysis and op-eds. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Over the course of several decades, the BBC coddled paedophile Jimmy Savile whose rape and abuse of children, some as young as eight years old, was known to BBC staff for years. No action during Savile's life were taken, and investigations into hundreds of cases of abuse only began after his death in 2011.
War Propaganda: Selling "WMDs" in Iraq and Fictional "Freedom Fighters" in Syria
In addition to harbouring a child rapist, the BBC as a matter of policy has engaged in war propaganda, most notably in recent years in the lead up to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Predicated on claims that the Iraqi government, then headed by President Saddam Hussein, maintained chemical and biological weapon programmes capable of threatening global security, the US, UK, several European nations and a symbolic collection of other "coalition" members, invaded and occupied the Middle Eastern nation, triggering a destructive civil war and claiming, by some estimates, up to a million lives.
Selling the war to the public was undertaken by the Western media, including the BBC, who in a 2002 Panorama broadcast would claim:
So where has Saddam got to in rebuilding his chemical weapons capability today? He still has enough material to manufacture 200 tons of VX gas in just a few weeks. And he’s got several hundred tons of mustard gas, the choking agent he’s used before, plus several thousand munitions to deliver it on the battlefield. This summer a chemical plant at Faluja showed signs of being rebuilt after an earlier pounding from British and US warplanes. Satellite pictures revealed new chemical storage tanks, buildings and piping systems. The CIA believes Saddam is up to his old tricks, producing chlorine here, but far more than Iraq actually needs. Chlorine is an ingredient in some chemical weapons.The same BBC would admit one invasion, occupation and tens of thousands dead later, that Iraq did not have chemical or biological weapons. It's 2004 report, one year after the invasion, titled, "Report concludes no WMD in Iraq," would admit:
Iraq had no stockpiles of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons before last year's US-led invasion, the chief US weapons inspector has concluded.The BBC and other prominent names among the Western media did not simply report what they believed to be the truth, they reported what they knew was a lie.
Iraq Survey Group head Charles Duelfer said Iraq's nuclear capability had decayed not grown since the 1991 war.
In the lead up to the war in Iraq, prominent analysts and even UN inspectors insisted that claims of Iraq possessing "weapons of mass destruction" (WMDs) were fabricated in order to create a pretext for war. The BBC and others intentionally drowned these pleas for truth with an incessant din of war propaganda and hysteria.Since the war in Iraq, the BBC has played a prominent role in selling other Western military interventions including the 2011 US-led NATO bombardment of Libya that has left the nation fully in ruination.
It has also spared no effort in attempting to sell direct military intervention in Syria. It claims that "freedom fighters" are attempting to overthrow the "dictatorship" of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. Despite all evidence confirming these "freedom fighters" are actually foreign funded, armed, trained and indoctrinated members of various designated terrorist organisations, the BBC has sidestepped fact and crafted myriad fabrications preying on emotions rather than factual evidence including fictional characters such as "Gay Girl in Damascus."
"Her" alleged real name was Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari, but was later revealed to be neither gay, nor a girl or even located in Damascus (or Syria for that matter). Instead, the fictional character was created by an American man residing in the UK named Tom MacMaster.
The BBC in June of 2011 would even host the woman who's photo had been stolen by MacMaster to use for the fictional character, as well as a Syrian activist, in an attempt to explain why a "real activist" in Damascus would want to use someone else's photo, apparently in an effort to prolong the hoax.
The BBC would finally admit later that month in an article titled, "Syria Gay Girl in Damascus blog a hoax by US man," that:
A blog purportedly written by a gay woman in Syria, which described life in Damascas amid the current political unrest, has been revealed to be a hoax.Similar suspicions that the BBC is using unverified "characters" to sell war propaganda in Syria include "Bana Alabed," an alleged 7 year old claiming on Twitter to be trapped in eastern Aleppo.
A Girl Gay in Damascus gained a worldwide readership and was closely followed by news organisations.
But the true author has now come forward - Tom MacMaster, an American man studying in Scotland.
The BBC in its article, "Meet the seven-year-old girl tweeting from Aleppo," would provide no evidence or information regarding how Alabed's identity, location and stories have been verified.
The BBC in Thailand
The BBC in Thailand, currently represented by Jonathan Head, also a member of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT), has also been involved in impropriety and fraud. In 2010, the BBC went through extraordinary lengths to conceal the presence of approximately 300 heavily armed militants operating inside of Bangkok, portraying the unfolding violence as they confronted government troops as the result of an unprovoked "crackdown" by the ruling government.
In 2015, when a powerful bomb detonated in the centre of Bangkok killing 20 and maiming many more, the BBC's Jonathan Head would travel to the crime scene to tamper with evidence in an attempt to undermine the ongoing investigation and humiliate both the police and the Thai government.
Earlier this year, amid a torrent of leaked documents regarding convicted financial criminal George Soros' Open Society Foundation, evidence regarding the FCCT's funding surfaced only to be initially denied by the BBC's Jonathan Head specifically.
Head would later backtrack, admitting that only "one" programme was funded by Open Society. Further investigation revealed Head, as well as the FCCT's president, Dominic Faulder, unequivocally lied, with the FCCT providing cover for the "The Indochina Media Memorial Foundation" (IMMF), funded by Open Society, sharing the same office as the FCCT and run directly by the FCCT's president, Dominic Faulder.
Currently, the BBC is engaged in propaganda aimed at undermining both the Thai government and the nation's head of state, King Maha Vajiralongkorn. The BBC has repeatedly and intentionally disseminated false information to create doubt and division amid Thailand's sensitive transition.
Lobbyists, Not Journalists. Fraud, Not Journalism
It is clear that globally, the BBC is engaged in lobbying. It promotes wars, regime change and other policies on behalf of special interests residing in both London and Washington. It uses the veneer of journalism to promote what is essentially lobbyist talking points. Using expensive studios, sharply dressed commentators and rolling out paid lobbyists posing as "experts," the BBC seeks to manipulate public perception, not inform it.
In the process, it has contributed to the destruction of entire nations, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, the ruination of millions of lives and the spectre of crisis looming over any and all nations that obstruct the ambitions of the special interests the BBC represents and lobbies for.
While the BBC in the United Kingdom is the British people's problem to confront and overcome, in nations like Thailand, the veneer of journalism must be legislatively peeled away. Allowing the BBC to continue operating as "journalists" using "journalistic credentials" undermines real journalism and the essential role it plays in informing the public and existing as a functional check and balance to political power.
The BBC's Jonathan Head in Thailand specifically, has tampered with evidence, committed fraud regarding the FCCT's funding and commits fraud each and every time he and his network presents lobbying as journalism. The BBC in Thailand, along with other members of the FCCT, work ceaselessly to lend credibility to US and European government funded fronts posing as "nongovernmental organisations" (NGOs). It is yet another example of how the BBC abuses journalism to perpetuate fraud and confusion.
Both Thais, and the global public abroad should be aware that as talk of "fake news" circulates, organisations like the BBC could easily be considered as one of the original "fake news" networks.
The New Atlas is a media platform providing geopolitical analysis and op-eds. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
