BBC apology?

Well, whaddya know. Mark Thompson, the outgoing chief of the BBC, an organisation I may have mentioned a couple of times already in my posts, has made an apology of sorts regarding their coverage of the horror of the Fogel family massacre. It’s only taken a year and a half, give or take a couple of months.

There was scant mention across the BBC at the time of the slaughter of a baby, two children and their parents as they lay asleep in their beds on that awful Friday night. They, the BBC that is, not the terrorists, excused their actions by saying that it had been a busy weekend for news, what with the Libyan uprising and Japanese tsunami to deal with.

Now, I grant you, these were momentous events, deserving of the coverage they received. However, one has to wonder why and how the BBC suddenly found time to report about the murders (albeit on only one of their radio stations, none on television and a brief article on the internet), two days later. By then, however, the slaughter was reported as part of a report on the actions that the Israelis had undertaken in the aftermath and not as a news item of its own gravity.

Many were left wondering if, God forbid, the story were reversed and a Jew had killed an Arab family in the same awful manner, the BBC would have been quite so blasé about it. Somehow I think that’s doubtful, but I hope and pray that we never find out.

In the meantime, I’ve waited a couple of days since news of the apology broke before I wrote anything, for two reasons. First, it’s taken me that long to believe that it’s actually true. Secondly, I’ve been waiting for it to appear on the BBC news site itself. Strangely, no mention of an apology has appeared. I’ve checked the main news page, the international pages, the Middle East section, all to no avail.

Nothing.

Not a word of apology to the actual audience who deserve it. No eating of humble pie or admissions of guilt, either by design or negligence. Not even a politically-correct we learn from our mistakes and try to improve on them.

I guess it’s easy for Mr Thompson to apologise now that he’s on his way out and even easier if he doesn’t actually appear to do so “at home.” I can’t help but find his half-hearted, well-spun apology in a personal letter to a badgering MP (if I ever meet Louise Mensch MP, remind me to buy her a drink), similar to the Arab leaders who have time and time again preached hate to their own people in their own language, whilst falsely and deceitfully talking of peace whenever a foreign audience is involved.

Am I wrong?