THE BBC must issue a public apology after a presenter read out a text equating an SNP campaign slogan to the Holocaust on a morning radio show, a media expert has said.
Dr Emma Briant, a professor in news and political communication at Monash University in Melbourne, has insisted the corporation must answer key questions put forward by The National and explain how Kaye Adams came to read out the message on her Mornings show.
Briant, who was part of the University of Glasgow's Glasgow Media Group that pioneered analysis of television news, added the “exceptionally poor judgement” would deplete trust in the BBC which must explain what actions it is taking to ensure the mistake is not repeated.
The BBC apologised for the incident and said on reflection the text should not have been broadcast, but The National has still not received any acknowledgement from the corporation after asking about the decision-making process.
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Briant told The National: “The BBC should be vetting anything they are going to just read out. One has to assume they did, and that’s the shock here.
“Not only are they uncritically repeating this without any judgement of it or reflection on the awfulness of what’s been said, but they’re also trivialising the Holocaust in the process.
“It’s just exceptionally poor judgement. I felt very uncomfortable hearing her [Adams] say that, particularly in the current context.
“I would like to know what went wrong. We need to know more about that process but they also need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“It’s a shocking failure and it’s so insulting to people and at a time when we’ve got antisemitic attacks taking place and there is so much tension over Gaza and the October 7 attacks.”
During BBC Radio Scotland’s Mornings show on Monday, Adams read: “Slowly getting rid of all political opposition, this is the rhetoric of the 1930s, says John.
"What about the 700,000 Scots who vote Conservative, are their political viewpoints to be marginalised from Scottish society and ultimately banned from expressing their opinion?
"Is this Humza’s 'final solution for dealing with the Tory problem'?"
The line is a reference to the Nazi slogan "Endlösung der Judenfrage" – the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum says this phrase describes "the deliberate and systematic mass murder of European Jews".
Asked if she felt the BBC needed to make a public apology, Briant (above) said: “I do actually. I think it’s appalling.”
Briant added she is concerned the incident will further erode trust in the BBC at a time when she claims cuts to programmes like Newsnight are having a knock-on effect to the quality of content.
She said: “It’s going to deplete trust and they need to explain what happened, apologise and ensure it’s not going to happen again.
“This is a sign, probably, of underfunding or lack of proper management in editorial and experience.
“We’ve seen a decline in seniority and things going down to the bare bones. I think we are seeing a decline in quality with the declining budgets at the BBC.
“You don’t know what’s going on, but they need to explain.”
In November the BBC announced plans to scale back its Newsnight offering, cutting staff and funding by more than half.
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It announced the programme would no longer have a dedicated reporting team and would be cut to just 30 minutes.
Former Newsnight host Emily Maitlis said there was an “irony” that the BBC show had been scaled back after it had to “fight” to take risks with its journalism.
Briant said she additionally had fears about the BBC’s judgement with the message at a time when there is so much tension around the crisis in the Middle East, with Jews feeling threatened and attacked.
She said: “I think that context is important. We’ve seen an uptick in antisemitism, real hate crimes taking place, people who are belittling the Holocaust, even Holocaust denial.
“So comments that make light of that and turn it into something that’s just a dismissive jibe at the opposition makes it something trivial.
“The reality of it being genocide becomes lost at a time when Jewish people are feeling very scared. The fact they [the BBC] didn’t think about that at a time when we’ve got a lot of tensions is just awful.
“It’s not just about poor judgement with something being read out, I think it has greater effect in this context because we are seeing so many antisemitic attacks and conspiracy theories being circulated.”
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