Owen Jones Slams BBC Over Coverage of U.S. Plans to Invade and Annex Greenland
January 9, 2026
When the U.S. talks about using military force to “acquire” Greenland, the BBC softens the language.
When Russia does it, it’s called what it is: invasion.
Owen Jones calls out the media double standard and the dangerous normalization of imperial language that would never be tolerated if the roles were reversed.
Words matter. Power hides in euphemisms. And silence is complicity.
Share and expose them.
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#OwenJones #BBC #MediaBias #freepalestine #fyp
English Script:
BBC Anchors: Good morning, It’s 6:00, welcome to Breakfast with Sally Nugent and John Kay. Our headlines for you today. Using the American military to acquire Greenland, the white House says it’s one of the options President Trump and his team are discussing.
Owen Jones: If you’re wondering what that noise is, a howl of pain emanating from the grave of George Orwell. “Using the American military to acquire Greenland.” “Acquire”. Is there any other word in English language that might be, I don’t know, maybe a bit more appropriate? I mean, there are, after all, around 170,000 words in current use in English. It’s not like there’s a lack of options here. A little thought experiment for you. Imagine the story was about Russia talking about Latvia. Would the BBC say, “using the Russian military to acquire Latvia”? Can you imagine? Do any of you think one moment that would happen? Now we all know what they would say. They would correctly say, by the way, that Russia is threatening to invade Latvia and annex it. That’s what they’d say. They would foreground the fact that this would be an act of armed aggression, an illegal act of armed aggression at that. Note the text as well. They’re using on their on-screen banner. “US Greenland plans.” Euphemistic doesn’t even begin to describe it. They’re talking about it like, I don’t know, government plans for transport or education. These plans for things like going on holiday, spending time with friends and loved ones at the weekend to emphasise again, we are talking about the US illegally invading territory in an act of aggression. Would the BBC have, as their on-screen banner, “Russian Latvia plans”? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh, but it is ridiculous. If Russia was talking about invading and annexing Latvia. I know they wouldn’t, you know they wouldn’t. And what’s more, BBC journalists and their editors know they wouldn’t.
