The concept of “balance” in BBC reporting is a cornerstone of the corporation’s journalistic ethos, but it may well come to be seen as a key factor in its decline. On everything from Brexit to climate change, the obsession with giving equal exposure to each participant in an unequal dispute has proven to be a poison. So it is with The Darkest Days: Israel-Gaza Six Months On, an assiduous application of the BBC’s famed ability to see both sides.
The process of distribution here is stark. The Darkest Days is split into two separate programmes, bookended by brief remarks from the BBC’s chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet. Equal time is given to the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas, during which Israeli authorities say about 1,140 people were killed, and the six months of attacks on Gaza that followed, during which Palestinian authorities say at least 33,000 people have been killed so far.
