BBC: "it is OK for us to lie if other sources print the same lie"

Last week I wrote about how the main stream media lied about the numbers who attended the Pegida march in Birmingham. I made the following complaint to the BBC:

The article referring to the Pegida march in Birmingham on 6 Feb was clearly trying to downplay the groundswell of concern against Islamic immigration to Europe, and included the statement: "The BBC's religious affairs correspondent Caroline Wyatt said fewer than 200 people turned up". In fact this is demonstrably a lie. As can clearly be seen from the video https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y8PxBzHCrD4 there are many times more people on that march than 200. You can clearly see at least 220 distinct placards being held up and about one in every 5 or 8 people is holding a placard, making an estimate of well over 1000 people.   

As readers of this blog will know I have made many complaints to the BBC (mainly about its anti-Israel bias) and received almost universally unsatisfactory responses. But their response (below) to the above complaint is the most astonishing yet in its contempt for the British public as well as its failure to adhere to the BBC's own constitution:

We note your comments unhappy with the figure (“fewer than 200”) the BBC’s religious affairs correspondent Caroline Wyatt gave in the following article, for the number of people participating in a Pegida anti-Islam silent march in Birmingham on Saturday 6 February: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35514840 

While we’ve registered your concerns, we’re not alone in reporting this figure: 

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/06/pegida-uk-supporters-stage-anti-islam-silent-march-birmingham

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/thousands-take-part-in-anti-islam-pegida-protests-across-europe-a6857911.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3435093/A-world-divided-Violent-clashes-break-globe-thousands-streets-anti-Islam-protests-organised-far-right-group-PEGIDA.html

(Please note that the BBC is not responsible for the content found on any external sites.)

The Daily Mail article also notes that the figure of 200 was also the police estimate: “police said about about [sic] 200 PEGIDA supporters and 60 counter demonstrators turned out”.

Thank you for your feedback about BBC News. Please know complaints are sent to senior management and news teams every morning and we’ve included your points in our overnight reports. These reports are among the most widely read sources of feedback in the BBC and ensure that complaints are seen quickly by the right people.

Kind regards

Stuart Webb