People who wrote the BBC complaining about Orla Guerin‘s coverage from Bint Jbeil received the following reply:
Thank you for your e-mail.
I appreciate that you felt a recent BBC News report from Orla Guerin was biased against Israel.
I should state that Orla Guerin’s report on the 14th August from Bint Jbeil in Southern Lebanon made clear at the start that she was reporting on the perspective of Lebanese people returning home in their thousands.
She reported: “I haven’t seen a single building that isn’t damaged in some way. Many have been flattened. Many have been singed. This town has really been wiped out.”
Orla did not say that every building had been wiped out. She was using an impressionistic phrase implying extreme damage which is justified by the scale of what she saw.
Nevertheless, I do acknowledge your concerns and will ensure that your comments on all matters are fully registered and made available to news editors and indeed senior management within the BBC. Feedback of this nature helps us when making decisions about future BBC programmes and services and your views will most certainly play a part in this process.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact us.
Watch Guerin’s report, read our critique, and judge for yourself whether the BBC’s reply holds water.
