this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
92 points (98.9% liked)

UK Politics

3938 readers
114 users here now

General Discussion for politics in the UK.
Please don't post to both !uk_politics@feddit.uk and !unitedkingdom@feddit.uk .
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric politics, and should be either a link to a reputable news source for news, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread. (These things should be publicly discussed)

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

!ukpolitics@lemm.ee appears to have vanished! We can still see cached content from this link, but goodbye I guess! :'(

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
tom@feddit.uk
GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk
flamingos@feddit.uk
frankPodmore@slrpnk.net
92
BBC smears Bob Vylan and calls them antisemitic for saying "Death to the IDF". (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/uk_politics@feddit.uk
22 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Impartial broadcaster btw.

all 23 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] flamingos@feddit.uk 7 points 1 day ago

Link to statement (Archive)

Alt textBBC statement on Glastonbury 2025

"Millions of people tuned in to enjoy Glastonbury this weekend across the BBC's output but one performance within our livestreams included comments that were deeply offensive. The BBC respects freedom of expression but stands firmly against incitement to violence. The antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves. We welcome Glastonbury’s condemnation of the performance.

"The performance was part of a live stream of the West Holts stage on BBC iPlayer. The judgment on Saturday to issue a warning on screen while streaming online was in line with our editorial guidelines. In addition, we took the decision not to make the performance available on demand. The team were dealing with a live situation but with hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen.

"In light of this weekend, we will look at our guidance around live events so we can be sure teams are clear on when it is acceptable to keep output on air."

Please include sources for images, and alt text if possible.

[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago

Bob Vylan just got a lot more popular, worldwide.

Fuck genocide and everybody, including the BBC, who enables it.

[–] MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 18 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I have made a formal complaint to the BBC which you can through their site and I recommend others to do so to. I labelled it as factual inaccuracy and written the following:

In a statement about Bob Vylan at Glastonbury it was stated: 'The antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves.'

Nothing they said were antisemitic. Being critical of governing state's military killing innocent people is not the same as hating an ethnic group. This is slander to pose it as such and I am appalled at the BBC for thinking it should be. As well as thinking that such criticisms should not be live on air.

Being critical of Israel as a state is not the same as hating Jewish people as an ethnicity. Thus NOT antisemitic. It is anti-zionist at best if you are searching for a more valid label.

The BBC are meant to be impartial but this statement shows otherwise to the highest order.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 6 points 21 hours ago

Great work. Mass complains is how the Israel lobby supposedly gets their way.

For others, put in a complaint if you can https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints/make-a-complaint/#/Complaint%20Summary

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

does bbc and glastonbury not listen to the artists they book for the show or something or are they just fucking stupid? like how are you shocked that you booked a punk band and they came out against genocide and the military?

[–] Ruchbah@feddit.uk 4 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8418158.stm

Reminds me of this!

The BBC has apologised after Radio 5 live listeners heard Rage Against the Machine swearing in a live performance of their song Killing In The Name.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

The beeb really thinks it's their job to incompetently push state propaganda talking points apparently. Good for them I guess

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 12 hours ago

jesus christ.

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 2 points 18 hours ago

Por qué no los dos?

[–] ceenote@lemmy.world 46 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It must be such a relief to find something to report on other than the IDF ordering soldiers to fire on crowds of starving people lining up for food.

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago

Ethnostates, man. They will always end up like this. Any criticism is "hate", which is completely dishonest.

[–] RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Call to violence? Yes.

Antisemitic? No.

[–] ProvableGecko@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Call to violence? Yes.

Calling for the dissolution of an organization is not violence, Bob Vylan was just taking his artistic liberty with the wording of the message.

Please, we don't need to do the work of a libelous disinformation network for them.

[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't understand how "death" and "kill" have started being so context dependent.

When we see people protesting in parts of the world chanting "death to the west" on tv, does the average person watching it understand it's a figure of speech which is implicitly calling for social justice or whatever?

Social media posts too like "kill fascists/nazis", I am terminally online enough to read it as a figure of speech but it's pretty clunky.

FWIW Israel are committing war crimes in Gaza and protesting at Glastonbury where there are lots of eyeballs watching makes sense. I just find the rhetoric a bit clumsy if you are chanting words that sound catchy but don't mean to use them in their normative sense.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I don't think we actually need to litigate that since it isn't relevant one way or the other. The accusation is that the statement was anti-semitic, it wasn't anti-semitic. Whether or not it was a call to violence is actually irrelevant to that part of the discussion.

I have no idea if it was or wasn't because I didn't witness it and now I can't.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Whether or not it was a call to violence is actually irrelevant to that part of the discussion. I have no idea if it was or wasn't because I didn't witness it and now I can't.

There's video of it you could watch. The dude chanted "Death! Death! Death to the IDF!"

This isn't anti-semetic, but it could be interpreted as a call to violent action if you take "death" as literal.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago

Right but my point is that doesn't matter the accusation that has been laid which is, that it's anti-semitic (whatever the hell that means in 2025) and we agree it isn't anti-semitic. It might be violent l, I don't know, apparently no one cares about that.

Just as long as we're not insulting Jews Which is apparently a very bad thing to do for some reason.

[–] ProvableGecko@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I have no idea if it was or wasn’t because I didn’t witness it and now I can’t.

Are you typing this comment on your TV that only receives BBC? You know the video is one "bob vylan glastonbury 2025" youtube search away right?

As for Bob Vylan the British courts are going to throw the book at him like they did with Kneecap so it's important to reiterate that his speech was not targeted at an individual or a protected minority group.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago

All I said was I couldn't view the content and I can't.

I didn't watch the original broadcast so I have no frame of reference for any of this. I'm sure there are other copies but the problem is I don't know what I'm supposed to Google because who the hell is this guy?

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That is some serious linguistic contortion. You're going to pull a muscle.

[–] ProvableGecko@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

No actually, I am very comfortable, thanks!

[–] RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com 0 points 1 day ago

Hey, I hope you serve on juries because you're wrong in the morally correct direction.

I hope the IDF is radically changed or dissolved.