When will the BBC face up to the truth?
Last week a leaked dossier revealed the BBC’s biased reporting on the topic of sex and gender alongside concerns over biased coverage of Donald Trump and the war in Gaza. The government’s Culture, Media and Sport committee wrote to BBC chair Samir Shah to ask what action was being taken over the concerns that had been raised, and to ask for a copy of the full report, written by former journalist Michael Prescott.
Both Tim Davie, the BBC’s director-general, and Deborah Turness, chief executive of BBC News, resigned almost a week later – but BBC news teams reporting on the resignations have so far glossed over the role that transgender issues played. And the reply that Shah wrote to the committee does not acknowledge either the harm the BBC has done to its own reputation or the wider damage caused to its audiences by its long-term failures in reporting on sex and gender issues.
In the letter, Shah addresses in detail concerns about the broadcaster’s coverage of Trump and Gaza, but dismisses the disturbing findings and evidence reported by Prescott on the BBC’s coverage of trans issues, claiming that “much of the coverage met the BBC’s standards of impartiality and accuracy”. That defence ignores the stories that the BBC chose not to report on, and dismisses the damage done by years of misinformation about puberty blockers and medical transition.
The letter seems to show that the BBC is still in denial about the extent of its failures. Is the transactivist mindset so baked into the institution now that it is impossible for senior leadership, let alone journalists, to think objectively? Or is it too much to admit that the BBC has been complicit in promoting an ideology that has irreparably harmed vulnerable children, and set women’s and gay rights back decades?
Sex Matters wrote to the BBC’s board last week after the dossier was leaked, calling on its members to return the national broadcaster to its commitment to “pursuing the truth with no agenda”.
The revelation that the BBC has been suppressing news about the dark side of gender ideology and instead serving up a diet of sunny promotional stories had come as no surprise. The alleged role of the “LGBTQ desk” as the graveyard for critical coverage of trans ideology, and of BBC internal staff networks as minders of other journalists’ stories, was well known.
The dossier quoted David Grossman, the editorial guidelines and standards committee’s senior editorial adviser, who had warned that the BBC’s approach suggested that “the concept of gender identity is an established fact rather than contested”.
The culture and expectations at the BBC have been made clear by the proliferation of Progress Pride lanyards, management allowing trans-identifying males to use the women’s toilets, and a one-sided approach to complaints.
The dossier highlighted:
stories raising concerns about the quality or safety of care given to gender-questioning children and adults receiving “little or no coverage”
reporting that failed to reflect the experience of detransitioners
more stories about the waiting times for people to receive care than examination of the quality of that care
a surprisingly high number of stories about drag queens
no coverage of the WPATH files leak which raised concerns about the quality of care given to gender-distressed children.
scant coverage of campaigning by, and the concerns of, gender-critical women
failure to to cover the story of the Darlington nurses
no coverage on the issue of male police and prison officers being allowed to conduct strip searches on women and girls.
A significant reset is needed, which will take bravery and seriousness from the top. In our letter – as reported in The Telegraph today – we call on the BBC board to do five things:
Root out the oppressive influence of transgender ideology in the organisation.
Replace activist language with normal language.
Stop normalising transgender ideology in BBC output.
Ensure that all BBC journalists can tell the unvarnished truth without fear.
Retrain staff on core facts.