The Children’s BBC Newsround 9/11 Guide Why did they do it? page, the one that we’ve been complaining about recently, was changed at 2pm yesterday (Saturday) to read:
Al-Qaeda is unhappy with America and other countries getting involved in places like the Middle East. People linked to al-Qaeda have used violence to make this point in the USA, and in other countries.
The events of 11 September 2001 and other al-Qaeda attacks have been condemned by many people all over the world, including large numbers of Muslims.
…just two days after Newsround’s Editor, writing about the previous version of the page, said “we stand by the more recent version”.
The newest version might not be how I’d write it, but it’s a huge improvement over what went before (see the megapost below for screenshots, text etc.).
Some of the other CBBC Newsround 9/11 Guide pages have also been improved, for instance, the What happened? page used to begin (my italics):
On 11 September 2001 armed people took control of four planes that were flying above the US.
It now begins:
On 11 September 2001 Islamic fanatics hijacked four planes that were flying above the US.
The How did al-Qaeda start? page used to conclude (my italics):
When the conflict was over, al-Qaeda was set up to continue the jihad against people the volunteers thought were enemies of Islam.
Al-Qaeda is thought to operate in 40 to 50 countries around the world.
It now concludes with:
When the conflict was over, al-Qaeda was set up to continue the jihad against people they considered to be ‘enemies’ of their religion – Islam.
Al-Qaeda is thought to operate in 40 to 50 countries around the world.
It is classed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government.
There are some other tweaks that would be nice, for example:
- Flight 93, the fourth plane, merely “crashed into a field” – without mentioning the passengers who fought back once they realised what was happening – the real story;
- That 300 firefighters were killed whilst attempting to rescue people, rather than just being among the ‘dead’.
…but overall the CBBC Newsround 9/11 Guide is now a lot better than it was last Tuesday (the anniversary), and a whole lot better than it was back in June 2007 when the issue was first raised on Biased BBC (see halfway-down here and here).
Thank you to all of you who took the time to complain to the BBC enough to get their attention and have them reconsider and revise these pages. Thank you also to Guido Fawkes, Iain Dale, Conservative Home, Damian Thompson of The Telegraph and all the other bloggers who linked in support of this effort – it is very much appreciated.
It is a shame that it took so much of our time and effort to get the Newsround team to listen, eventually, to commonsense. I hope that the extent of that struggle will not be lost on the BBC’s management – a less defensive attitude to the first round of complaints (and less obfuscation about what was being complained about) would have saved everyone, the BBC included, a lot of bother.
Thank you to David Preiser for alerting me to the changes. I am sure that Sinead Rocks’ BBC Editors Blog post, Appropriate language, will be updated to reflect recent events in due course. It will be interesting to hear the BBC side of the story.
