Employment Disputes, “Egregious” Letters & Editorial Errors: Inside BBC Turmoil Over Israel-Gaza
deadline.comBBC boss Tim Davie hosts regular talent events to charm the people who populate his airwaves, but it’s not often that talk turns to geopolitics.
That changed in January when a list of stars, including Radio 2 presenter Vernon Kay, gathered and the conversation crackled with a sound that has now become familiar to Davie: unease over Israel-Gaza coverage.
The discussion was said to be diplomatic and Davie receptive, but there were misgivings about the BBC’s output since October 7, when Hamas raided Israel and killed around 1,200 people, while taking more than 200 hostages.
It will not have surprised Davie, but it may have cemented any sense that the Israel-Gaza crisis would be a theme of 2024. Six months on, the mood at the BBC is so fraught, some suggest that relations between colleagues, and the corporation’s reputation among Jewish and Muslim viewers, will never be the same again.
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