Revealed: How Leave.EU faked migrant footage

[Denzil_DC]

An investigation by Channel 4 News also reveals how Arron Banks’ pro-Brexit group appears to have staged photos of migrants attacking women in London

The pro-Brexit campaign group, Leave.EU, faked a viral video and appear to have staged photos of “migrants”, shortly before the EU referendum.

An investigation by Channel 4 News found that images purporting to show “migrants” attacking young women in London seem to have been staged.

The group – backed by businessman Arron Banks – was also behind a fake video, claiming to show how easy it is for migrants to sneak into Britain. In reality, satellite data shows the men on board had not left UK waters.

...

Just days earlier, Leave.EU was also behind a series of seemingly-staged photographs that show a woman being violently attacked by a man wearing a hooded jacket. Another photo appeared to show a woman being grabbed from behind as she walks into a shop.

https://www.channel4.com/news/revealed-how-leave-eu-faked-migrant-footage

Perhaps needless to say, Leave.EU discussed releasing the photos in the run-up to the Brexit referendum and identifying the "attackers" as migrants.

Channel 4 News has been playing a blinder in recent months. As well as the feature above, tonight's episode had a really intelligent on-site interview about the Notre Dame disaster.

[Soph0571]

1. Saw this on C4 news tonight

Should be shocked....but no surprises at all really.... they are liars, always have been

[Denzil_DC]

2. I'd had a beer by the time I wached the 8pm repeat.

The cat raised an eyebrow as I kept shouting "Lock him up!" every time a new miscreant appeared onscreen (Mrs Denzil's currently away. She might have joined in if she'd been here, but I took the opportunity to let it all out).

[sheepfarm]

3. I am hoping for the day that Aaron Banks get locked up as a criminal

Wherever his downfall lands him in an open prison in England for a few years, or he spends the rest of his life in an orange boiler suit in his own isolated cell in ADX Florence. If karma exists then I sincerely hopes he gets what it coming to him and everyone else who happily collaborated with him.

Also a note to the BBC: it is a shame and a shambles that Channel 4 is showing you how to actually engage in not only investigative reporting, but also how to objectively report what is happening. The headline covering the results of the recent Finnish General Election was something that InfoWars would have spun, but that wasn't an accident. Over the last few years the Beeb will be quick to mention any election result in Europe that paints hard right parties and candidates in a positive light, but when a more moderate, more centrist opponent wins out they're not so quick to mention it on the front page headlines. Either the BBC has lost its pride for independence of reporting even where they knew they'd upset higher ups in government, or they have lost its balls.

[Denzil_DC]

4. Welcome to DU!

I think it's more that the BBC has been co-opted by Tories.

Its Political Programmes Editor, Robbie Gibb, left to become May's Director of Communications, where he's said to be a particularly rabid Brexiter even in that environment. He's only the latest example of what's been labelled a "revolving door" between the corporation and the Tory Party and right-wing or centre-right newspapers.

And even those who've stayed put have betrayed their bias. John Humphrys, long-time host of the Today morning news programme that explicitly seeks to set the day's news agenda, has been censured for bias and his hectoring style in his interviews with guests. Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg was also found by the BBC Trust to have broken its guidelines on impartiality and accuracy. Figures like Nick Robinson have a history of Tory Party membership, and the guests invited on to panels often veer to the right.

Alison Fuller Pedley, who in her post at Mentorn Media is responsible for picking the audience for Question Time, has been "reminded" about BBC guidelines after sharing Facebook posts by Britain First over an extended period.

The BBC's panels for such shows themselves have given far more prominence to the likes of Farage than would have been warranted by his then party UKIP's standing in the polls, to the extent that he could be seen as a BBC media creation. And just this last week, his launch of his "new" party was the number one BBC headline on a day that wasn't short of news.

Back in 2013, academic research funded by the BBC Trust itself found that contrary to accusations of "liberal bias" in the likes of the Telegraph, "the evidence from the research is clear. The BBC tends to reproduce a Conservative, Eurosceptic, pro-business version of the world, not a left-wing, anti-business agenda."

Since then, the BBC Trust, chaired by Chris Patten from 2011 to 2014, has lost its regulatory role to Ofcom (whose own leadership skews rich and establishment) and its governance role has been transferred to the BBC Board, chaired by Sir David Clementi, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, among many other of his big business posts.

The governing board of an organization that is supposed to serve the British public, charged with safeguarding its independence, is heavily skewed to wealth and privilege. Couple this with constant threats to the BBC Charter and funding through the licence fee, and it's hardly a setup from which we can expect a radical outlook on politics and serious, consistent holding to account of the party in power.

The mess around Brexit has meant that even within these limits its coverage has had to be critical of the government, but always within certain bounds that fail to challenge to root of the malaise, and usually in ways that present the whole of governance - opposition and all - as deeply dysfunctional. Which it is, but cynicism that doesn't point to any way things could be improved and actively encourages stupid, flashy, often unchallenged soundbites from politicians and the latest darlings of the news cycle does nothing to encourage engagement among the public.

The rot isn't confined to domestic coverage, as you mention. I've been a keen follower of American politics, and some years ago, during the Obama era, grew increasingly frustrated with its coverage of US politics. BBC news used to be the pride of the world. Now, a lone guy with a laptop and too much time on his hands has repeatedly found himself shouting at the TV or radio that a story that's been headlining for the last 24 hours has already been debunked. And look at the US pundits the BBC often calls on for interviews - the likes of Sebastian Gorka and John Bolton (before he took up post under Trump) trotted out over the years, when there's no shortage of experts readily available who could offer far more incisive and unbiased commentary.

It seems like the more you know about an issue, the more threadbare the BBC's current affairs coverage appears.

I like to come away from a news programme feeling like I've been informed, challenged even, and stimulated. That seldom happens with the BBC nowadays. I still find points of divergence, which is healthy, but it happens more and more often with Channel 4's output.

(I'm also a Jon Snow fanboy, just so I have all my cards on the table! I often say he's the David Attenborough of current affairs.)