More on press reaction...

A good overview of press reaction to the terrorist bombings in the Jerusalem Post.

In its round-up of world reactions, BBC online was also quick to highlight the views of conspiracy theorists. The very first article listed by the BBC started by quoting Iranian cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani saying Israel was behind the London attacks. It was followed by a commentary on Iranian state radio explicitly blaming the Mossad.

With its unprecedented worldwide news reach (its radio service alone, broadcasting in 43 languages, attracts over 150 million listeners), BBC coverage is important in formulating worldwide public opinion.

But even more influential – and in respect to the London terror attacks, far more irresponsible – was the Associated Press (AP). The AP played into the hands of anti-Semites by irresponsibly running a bogus "Israel advance warning" story on its international newswire shortly after the London attacks. Although the story has since been retracted by the AP, the damage has been done. As was the case after 9/11, 1,000 "Israel knew"-style conspiracy theories have already been spawned on extreme rightist and leftist websites worldwide.

The AP story headlined "Netanyahu Changed Plans Due to Warning," written by Amy Teibel of the AP Jerusalem bureau and alleging that Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who was in London for an economic conference, had been tipped off "minutes before Thursday's explosions" was put out by the AP on its worldwide news wires at 11:14 a.m. GMT (7:14 a.m. EST) on Thursday.

Fox News ran the AP story on air at 7:50 a.m. New York time. AP's story also appeared on the websites of over 100 credible news outlets in the US, Canada, Ireland, India and elsewhere. More disturbingly, it appeared on Al-Jazeera and other Middle East media.

How could any serious editor or reporter not see that this was "black propaganda" and a replay of the post-9/11 libels? And how could the AP Jerusalem Bureau chief not have checked before running it?