BBC confronts its own journalist over false reporting about Gaza hospital strike — and a stunning response follows

A journalist who helped fan the flames of misinformation about the alleged Al-Ahli Arab Hospital strike is refusing to apologize for his mistake.

After a jihadist rocket fell on the parking lot of the hospital last month, the legacy media uncritically regurgitated Hamas' claim that Israel struck the hospital, totally destroying it and killing more than 500 people.

BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen is one such journalist who joined the chorus claiming the hospital was destroyed. He reported:

The missile hit the hospital not long after dark. You can hear the impact. The explosion destroyed Al-Ahli Hospital. It was already damaged from a smaller attack at the weekend. The building was flattened.

In a recent interview on the BBC's "Behind the Stories" program, Bowen was asked if he regrets his false reporting.

"To answer your question: No, I don't regret one thing in my reporting because I think I was measured throughout. I didn't race to judgment," Bowen answered.

But the interviewer pushed back, confronting Bowen with the fact that his reporting was incorrect. Stunningly, Bowen not only defended himself but justified his failure to use the basic tenets of journalism, like verifying claims before reporting them.

"But you said that building had been flattened," the interviewer told Bowen.

"Oh, yeah. Well, I got that wrong because I was looking at the pictures, and what I could see was a square that appeared to be flaming on all sides. And there was a sort of a void in the middle. And it was, I think it was a picture taken from a drone. And so, you know, we have to piece together what we see. And I thought, 'Well, it looks like whole building's gone." And that was my conclusion from looking at the pictures. And I was wrong on that," he admitted.

"But I don't feel particularly bad about that," Bowen boasted.

While Bowen has no regrets, his employer certainly does. Several days after Bowen's report, the BBC issued a correction and an apology for speculating that Israel was responsible for the strike, which neither flattened the hospital nor killed the number of people that Hamas claimed.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!