Why I no longer trust the BBC

As a Brit, I grew up watching the BBC (it comprised 2 of the 4 terrestrial TV channels available for most of my youth), and the BBC News was generally considered to be trustworthy. We pay a license fee for it so it should be, right? Although I haven't watched BBC TV News in years, I still check in on the BBC news website, and this conflict has disabused me of the notion that it is trustworthy or impartial. Want to know why?

Snake Island

Here's the story the BBC published on February 25th about the Ukrainian soldiers on Snake Island, who were initially reported dead:

Snake Island: Ukraine says soldiers killed after refusing to surrender

Notable quotes from the article:

'"On our Zmiinyi Island, defending it to the last, all the border guards died heroically," Mr Zelensky said'

'The official Russian account of the incident differs dramatically. Moscow said the 82 Ukrainian soldiers on the island surrendered it to them voluntarily and made no mention of carrying out strikes or inflicting casualties.'

Except those soldiers weren't killed. Here's the story the BBC published on February 28th:

Snake Island: Ukraine says troops who swore at Russian warship are alive

It's a confusing article, but it begins 'Ukraine's navy says the 13 soldiers believed to have been killed defending Zmiinyi (Snake) Island on the first day of the Russian invasion are alive.'

So the first story was reporting a lie. The BBC have not taken it down, amended it, or even added a link to the second story. The BBC's get-out would be, that they are not the ones lying: they are simply reporting what Ukraine told them. So Ukraine (and President Zelenskyy specifically) were lying, and Russia were telling the truth; this fact seems to go unnoticed by the BBC. It certainly hasn't stopped them reporting whatever Ukrainian sources have told them ever since then.

The second story even adds another Ukrainian accusation: 'The Ukrainian navy also accused Russian forces of illegally detaining the crew of a civilian search and rescue ship that Ukraine sent to the island on a humanitarian mission after the attack, as well as two priests who were accompanying them.' No indication is given as to whether the source who made this accusation was the same one who made up the first one.

The BBC were by no means alone in reporting this, and CNN didn't fare much better. They did choose to amend the first story with an update and a link to the second one, but like the BBC, they are entirely uncritical of the Ukrainian sources who reported the original story as if it were the truth. How many times does someone have to lie to you, before you stop believing anything they say?

And let's not forget about Jimmy Savile