The BBC sure know how to pick ’em!
The BBC has confirmed it has begun an urgent investigation into the conduct of a BBC World News journalist after the JC revealed he had used an anonymous social media account to mount attacks on the presenter Emma Barnett after she spoke out on the impact of antisemitism on her family.
Nimesh Thaker – who has worked as a new reporter and producer at the Corporation for over 20 years – also used the Twitter account set up under the pseudonym Not That Bothered to support posts written by Kerry-Anne Mendoza and Jackie Walker, both of whom have been at the centre of antisemitism allegations.
And in further posts from the same account, the BBC reporter also suggested Israel was a “racist” and “white supremacist state” and branded the BBC Director General a “white male Tory”.
A statement issued on Wednesday after the JC published its report said: “The BBC takes allegations of this nature extremely seriously, and while we cannot comment on individual staff issues, we have robust processes in place to investigate any such matters with urgency.”
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Mr Thaker – who reported and produced for BBC World for over 20 years – was openly critical of BBC 5 Live presenter Ms Barnett after she delivered a widely praised speech about the impact of the Holocaust on her family on the day that Twitter was being boycotted over its failure to act against rapper Wiley’s antisemitic outbursts.
Screenshots showed that the Not That Bothered account had retweeted a post sent to Ms Barnett which accused her of using “the same old ‘antisemitism’ excuse whenever people criticise Israel”.
In another tweet that same day, the Not That Bothered account then made a reference to those who were supporting the 48-hour boycott.
Mr Thaker wrote: “Has the level of hate and political smearing just dropped on twitter or are racists on holiday at the moment?”
Not That Bothered next retweeted a post written by Jackie Walker, who was expelled by Labour over antisemitism, which accused some of the Twitter boycotters of being “Infamous” for “anti-black/Muslim racism.”
On another occasion, Mr Thaker appeared to support claims by the notorious editor of The Canary website Ms Mendoza when Not That Bothered retweeted an incendiary post suggesting the “antisemitism witch-hunt” was heading for a “face-off” with the Black Lives Matters movement. The post also said: “those anti-Black, anti-Palestinian racists are gonna get their arses dragged all over town.”
And how did they find out it was him? It seems he was undone by his own stupidity.
The JC has been given evidence showing that Mr Thaker used the Not That Bothered account to attempt to make contact with individuals for reports he was making for the BBC – exposing the fact that he was behind the account.
Oops!
And like his anonymous account name, it seems Thaker was not always that bothered about hiding his true feelings.
Yea, you really care about antisemitism don’t you … pic.twitter.com/Adz2R3zQ32
— Bradley (@mrbradleyg1t) March 8, 2020
As of the time of this post, Thaker’s LinkedIn profile is no longer available. Perhaps he does not need to look for another job – I am sure there are plenty of media outlets – like Al Jizz and Press TV – that would love to snap him up.