Heather Kopsco, Ph.D.

On tonight's BBC News at Ten, the narrative about the campus protests moved even deeper into the realms of mendacious fiction. Earlier in the day the BBC led with a fake headline – "Rival protesters clashed" – even though the footage clearly shows outside pro-Israel agitators violently attacking a peaceful camp set up at UCLA by anti-genocide demonstrators, and throwing fireworks into their midst. Tonight, the BBC went further, precisely reversing the roles of aggressor and victim. It falsely attributed responsibility for the violence not to the pro-Israel groups attacking the anti-genocide protesters, but directly to the victims of the attack. The anchor stated: "In Los Angeles, demonstrators at a camp set up by people who oppose Israel's military action in Gaza clashed with counter demonstrators." In other words the BBC is claiming, contrary to all the visual evidence it and others have presented, that it was the anti-genocide protesters initiating "the clashes" rather than the reality that the pro-Israel groups are the aggressors. This is not accidental. This is meant to deceive audiences, to justify police brutality and to further efforts to crush the popular movement trying to stop a genocide. These media lies are integral to winning popular legitimacy for further curbs on suppressing our right to protest.