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The word the BBC never said on 9/11
Critics say the BBC marked 25 years since the attacks by talking about Islamophobia and skipping the attackers.
In brief
Critics say the BBC marked 25 years since the attacks by talking about Islamophobia and skipping the attackers. The row over the BBC's coverage is really a row over who a 9/11 anniversary is supposed to be about. Originally reported by Dailymail.
BBC accused of missing the point
On the 25th anniversary of the attacks, the BBC's coverage leaned on Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment. Critics say the terrorism that caused the day got pushed to the edges.
The D-Day comparison
A Westminster source reached for the bluntest analogy available to describe the framing, and it spread fast.
“like starting D-Day memorials by remembering the plight of the Nazis”
Today sets the tone
Radio 4's flagship morning programme built its anniversary segment around a Muslim interviewee describing how British Muslims were seen after 2001.
“We were viewed through the lens of terrorism.”
Questioned on British values
The same interviewee described being asked to account for his faith and his loyalty in the years that followed.
“Sadly there were questions about our faith and whether we share British values.”
Reporting from the memorial
The BBC's correspondent at the New York memorial opened his News at Ten piece not with the dead but with a political milestone.
“25 years on, the city has its first Muslim mayor.”
A record rise, he said
The same report set that milestone against a claim of worsening treatment of Muslim Americans a quarter century after the attacks.
“Muslim Americans experience a record rise in discrimination”
Blame pointed rightward
The correspondent named a source for the hostility, and it was not the hijackers.
“increased anti-Muslim sentiment from voices on the Right”
Same package, twice
It was not a one-off segment. Both the Six O'Clock News and News at Ten led their 9/11 coverage with the identical main story.
A cadet among the dead
That package followed a man whose brother, a Muslim American police cadet, was killed in the attacks. The loss was real, the framing was what drew fire.
Rhetoric that adds to pain
The bereaved brother told the BBC that commentary from the Right made his grief worse, and the bulletin let that stand as its closing note.
“kind of rhetoric which adds to the pain”
An ex-insider keeps score
Former BBC journalist Catherine Leng listened to the output and simply wrote down the vocabulary: Islamophobia, disproportionate overreach, Muslim communities.
“Words I heard on BBC News in its coverage: Islamophobia, disproportionate overreach, Muslim communities.”
Then the absence
Her list of what was missing ran to two words, and that is the whole complaint in miniature.
“Words I have not heard: Islamist terrorists.”
A Sky veteran joins in
Colin Brazier, formerly of Sky News, argued the avoidance was deliberate rather than accidental, a choice made before a word was broadcast.
Blame turned westward
Brazier's charge went further than word choice. He said the coverage nudged viewers toward a verdict on the West itself.
“not to use the word "Islam" in connection with 9/11”
What he thinks it implied
The accusation is that an anniversary became an argument, with the attacked cast as authors of their own attack.
“hint that the West got what it deserved”
No reply from the BBC
The piece carries quotes from a Westminster source and two former broadcasters, and nothing from the corporation. The criticism runs unanswered.
Readers piled in fast
The story logged 193 comments within hours of going up, which tells you the fight over how Britain talks about 9/11 is nowhere near settled.
At a glance
The row over the BBC's coverage is really a row over who a 9/11 anniversary is supposed to be about.
