The BBC is once again in a state of meltdown, this time over its Glastonbury coverage. Having dithered over whether to show Irish rap group Kneecap, a member of the group is on bail for terror charges, they got caught up by Bob Vylan. I confess, I had not heard of the punk duo before this weekend and so was watching something else at the time. (There were some great performances this week – Biffy Clyro, Pulp, Raye, Ezra Collective and Nile Rogers and Chic amongst them.)
I missed the delightful chant of “death, death to the IDF,” live. Hordes of others watching via iPlayer did not.
I want to be fair. The BBC was streaming 90 hours of Glastonbury live. I doubt they knew that Bob Vylan were going to include such disgusting things in their performance. But they did not cut the feed when it began. Obviously, that is what should have happened. Even the corporation admits this, saying in a statement today:
The performance was part of a live stream of the West Holts stage on BBC iPlayer. The judgment on Saturday to issue a warning on screen while streaming online was in line with our editorial guidelines. In addition, we took the decision not to make the performance available on demand. The team were dealing with a live situation but with hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen.
If broadcasting Jew hate is “in line with [your] editorial guidelines,” then you need to have a long hard look at said rules. As a Jewish journalist wrote for Jewish News:
There is an entire gallery of experienced BBC producers, directors and operators watching every second of every performance at Glastonbury. A decision should have been taken immediately to cut the live stream as soon as this garbage first uttered their antisemitic filth.
No More Glastonbury on BBC
On Saturday morning, I wrote for The Spectator about how difficult watching Glastonbury has become for Jews. It was worse than I imagined. There is now only one outcome. The BBC must cut its ties with the festival.
Glastonbury has become highly politicised. It is not appropriate that the licence fee payer funds coverage of what has become a mix of a CND gathering and a Nazi rally. The national broadcaster cannot show the kind of hate speech displayed by Bob Vylan and other who were not much better. It all puts Jews in real danger.
Furthermore, weekends like this leave the corporation’s reputation in tatters. It is irresponsible for it to be in that position. That’s obviously less important than broadcasting scores of antisemitic incidents to millions, but it might be the argument that makes Director General Tim Davie and his fellow execs take notice.
There is no Glastonbury in 2026. If the festival cannot get it’s house in order, it cannot be shown on the BBC in 2027.