Tuesday 14 May 2013

BBC Propaganda Technique #2: Burying a Story

I was recently perusing the comments on my article entitled `The Hillary Clinton Scandals' and was mystified by suggestions to include a scandal that had apparently materialized in the last few days. After investigating the claims, it appears that Hillary was guilty of covering up information about the Benghazi terrorist attack on the American embassy last year. However, I had seen no reports on the BBC News website about this cover up.

I immediately went to the BBC website, but to my surprise, I found nothing. I attributed this to the story being international news, so I clicked on "World" - still nothing. Becoming increasingly incredulous, I clicked on "US & Canada". Surely I would find an article about the cover up here? Alas, not a word about Hillary and Benghazi.

Image Source: Frank Plitt via Wikimedia Commons

I went to Google to see if there had ever been a BBC report about the scandal. I found a 4 day old blog entry from North America editor, Mark Mardell, that may have briefly appeared in the headlines before being quickly buried. In the post, Mardell begrudgingly acknowledges that new evidence means he was wrong to dismiss the scandal when it first appeared months ago. One must wonder what the motivation for this initial dismissal was.

Despite the scandal being huge news in America, Mardell's 4 day old blog was all I could find. The Benghazi scandal is currently the biggest story on most of the major US news networks, yet on the BBC it doesn't even feature on the US & Canada section of their website.

One is left with the distinct impression that the BBC has endeavored to bury the story. It is unclear how far this blackout extends across the British media, and one must ponder the motivation for it. Could the BBC be pandering to government pressure at a time when the British Prime Minister is negotiating a trade deal with the American government? It would certainly fit.

No comments: