May 22, 2025 News Words

Gaza, the BBC, and “Dozens”

“Formación de A-29B Súper Tucano(elemento de adelante) - Bicentenario Independencia de Colombia 2010” by Pablo Andrés Ortega Chávez via Wikimedia Commons.

by Sahar Tavakoli

In Italy, a coffee made without the addition of milk or sugar is not called black, but rather amaro, meaning bitter. Amaro is, in this context, a shortened form. In full, such coffee is amaro come la vita: bitter like life.

Save for Saturdays, I start all my mornings with a double serving of life’s bitter offerings: one shot of coffee, one bullet shot of the BBC World Service directly to my waking brain. I take both standing beside my stove, alternating between sips and bouts of yelling at my phone.

I do not consider the BBC an especially good news source, nor do I find it uniquely terrible. Pobody in the mainstream media landscape is nerfect. What keeps me coming back is our shared history. First established in 1932 under the title of Empire Service, the BBC’s World Service and its offshoots have made news in my own nation repeatedly over the past century. Between 1940 and 1979, BBC Persian Radio helped engineer Reza Shah’s abdication, cast nationalisation of Iran’s oil fields as economically ruinous, and aired speeches by the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini while limiting coverage of the Shah. Receiving its funding through Foreign Office grant-in-aid, the World Service does not just promote the ministry’s interests; it acts as its broadcasting arm. At the end of that arm is a hand, holding a stick and stirring a pot.

So: six days a week, quasi-awake but on full alert, I start my mornings listening to the world being narrated into shape. I have begun to notice a pattern. For the past 18 months, that narration has come in units of twelve.

A selective rundown of the BBC’s duodecimal headlines, October 2023 to present:

Dozens killed as Israeli strikes hit southern Gaza refuge area

BBC News. October 17, 2023

External estimate: 471

Dozens reported killed in Gaza refugee camp blast

BBC News. October 31, 2023

Count in article: 50

Dozens reported killed in Gaza as Blinken urges protection for civilians

BBC News. January 9, 2024

External estimate: 61

Dozens of suspects detained in Gaza hospital raid

Global News Podcast. February 16, 2024