This is John Baster, a conversation with my colleague Joseph Sternberg, the editorial board of the

Wall Street Journal. He's in London commenting on how the BBC has and has not approached the Iranian

tragedy, the ongoing what appears to be massacre by the authorities of unarmed civilians in Tehran.

Joe reports, where was the BBC in the first week of the protest?

Where is it now? Much more of this to deny.

Good question. You know, the big controversy has erupted over the past week or so because the BBC

was very, very slow to start covering the Iran protests. And it's also noticeable that you have a regime

in the Middle East shooting thousands of civilian protesters in the streets and absolute silence

from the people in Western democracies who are very happy to get out there protesting against

Israel.

So I think that this episode, I mean, it is first and foremost a tragedy for the Iranian people that they have to take these risks to try to claim back their own country from their

rulers.

But I think that this is an enormous embarrassment for a lot of people in the West, particularly,

but not exclusively on the political left, who are now refusing to stand by the people of Iran

or participate in any way in trying to call attention to this, just because this political

event in the Middle East does not provide an opportunity

for people to criticize Israel.