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From Mishal Husain allegedly calling for tougher scrutiny of Israel to Martin Lewis criticising the lack of a primetime consumer programme, the BBC has come under watchful eye of Media Watch this week.
Husain 'pushed for Israel scrutiny'
The BBC’s coverage of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has come in for some criticism over time, but intriguing news emerged over the weekend that one of its former presenters actually pushed for tougher scrutiny of Israel and more voices to be heard from Palestine before she announced she was leaving.
Mishal Husain, who is set to leave the Today programme after 11 years to head up a new Bloomberg series this week, reportedly decided to leave the corporation because she became frustrated with its coverage of the crisis in Gaza.
According to The Times, she also potentially ended her tenure at the BBC because she was unhappy about how the Today programme became increasingly casual and that she wanted to return to working in television.
It was additionally reported that some of her colleagues felt that because Husain is one of the highest-profile Muslim journalists in the UK she faced increased scrutiny of her interviews with Israeli politicians.
The newspaper also claimed that she, and a number of other BBC journalists, were known to have expressed reservations in editorial meetings about the broadcaster's coverage of the war in Gaza.
“She feels we don’t sufficiently report on the deaths of civilians, and we frame too much from the Israeli perspective,” a senior source from the Today programme said.
In October the Scottish Palestinian Society (SPS) said the BBC along with a number of other major news outlets had failed to follow “due diligence” and adhere to the ethical standards by “repeatedly promoting misleading and false narratives on Palestinians and Gaza”.
A study published earlier this year also found that the way in which the BBC reports on Palestinian and Israeli deaths shows clear “bias”.
Researchers looked at thousands of online articles and posts from the broadcaster between October 7, the date of the Hamas attacks on Israel, and December 2 and found a “systematic disparity in how Palestinian and Israeli deaths are treated” by the BBC, with words such as murder, massacre, and slaughter almost exclusively being linked to Israeli deaths.
In a statement last month, Husain announced she was leaving the BBC in the New Year after joining the organisation in 1998.
Martin Lewis ‘wants competition’
Elsewhere on a personal development podcast last week, consumer finance expert Martin Lewis made his views known about the BBC’s Watchdog no longer being on primetime TV.
Speaking on the High Performance podcast presented by Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes, Lewis said it was a “disgrace” the BBC had reduced Watchdog to a segment on the One Show during a cost of living crisis.
The programme started back in 1985 and focused on investigating complaints and concerns by viewers and consumers over problematic experiences with trade, retailers and other companies, concerning the likes of customer service and security. For much of its history it was an hour-long programme.
But in 2020, it was announced it would be discontinued as a standalone series and is now just a segment on The One Show once a week.
Lewis, who has presented The Martin Lewis Money Show on ITV since 2012, said it is a “tragedy” the Watchdog no longer has a primetime slot.
Describing himself as having been “a big fan” of Watchdog, Lewis said: “I think it’s an absolute tragedy that the BBC, our public service broadcaster, has reduced that [Watchdog] to a concession on the One Show.
“I mean I think it’s a disgrace during the cost of living crisis that there is now no mainstream consumer programme that is on primetime BBC.
“There is on ITV, but there isn’t on BBC, and I would love the competition.”
The BBC maintains Watchdog is watched by millions through The One Show while programmes such as Morning Live cover the cost of living crisis “daily”.
