The BBC is launching a review into its own coverage of migration to assess whether it is delivering “due impartiality” and providing a “breadth of voices and viewpoints” on the topic. In a new statement released this morning, the BBC Board announced it had commissioned a probe to be led by Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, and Samir Shah, chief of production company Juniper. The report will assess coverage from March to November 2022…

‘The review will assess coverage of topics such as ‘small boats’ crossing the English Channel; the admission of refugees fleeing Ukraine following the Russian invasion; the impact of migration on communities in the UK including the devolved nations and the English regions; the UK Government’s policy on sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda; and coverage of public announcements about migration. It will consider whether due impartiality is being delivered across BBC content and that a breadth of voices and viewpoints are being reflected.“

Outgoing BBC Chair Richard Sharp added the review “will ensure the BBC continues to have the correct approach to producing coverage that audiences can trust“. There’s plenty of material for them to sift through. Are they also going to review their coverage (or lack thereof) of Banks vs Cadwalladr?

The BBC’s capitulation to Gary Lineker, who recently revealed Tim Davie gave him express permission to tweet about refugees and the climate, seems to have emboldened other presenters at the corporation to tweet to their hearts content. Gary’s defence in the impartiality row (and for tax purposes) relies on the fact that as a self-contracted sports presenter – not employed by the BBC and away from news content – he should be less constrained by impartiality guidelines. It seems as though another presenter wants to make the most of Lineker’s loophole…

Now, there’s another name to add to the list of partisan presenters.  Just a quick look at the Twitter feed of Roland Pease, the self-contracted host of BBC Science in Action, is enough to reveal flagrant breaches of neutrality. Guido notes that Roland’s Twitter bio includes reference to his BBC employment – a factor relevant to determining impartiality breaches…

• Roland compared Nigel Farage to Joseph Stalin.
• Unearthed 1930s immigration rhetoric to compare to the present day, during the Gary Lineker controversy.
• Questioned Ofcom over Nigel Farage’s show and criticised his “nonsense”.
• Likened “King Boris” to an orangutan.
• Applauded Ben and Jerry’s “principled” criticism of Priti Patel – which ended with the statement “PEOPLE CANNOT BE ILLEGAL”.
• Joked about Boris Johnson’s sexual interests.
• Shared criticism of Brexit and Implied Brexit supporters couldn’t pass a history test.
• Made a searing criticism of the “lily-livered” BBC’s “shameful” cancellation of Gary Lineker.
• Mocked Thérèse Coffey’s turnip comments.
• Retweeted LedByDonkeys’ anti-Tory investigation.

Gary and Roland are two Pease in a pod…

As a science presenter and a freelancer, he may well hope to be equal to Gary in his immunity from impartiality obligations. Impartiality does seem more relevant to science than sport. In case he wanted to try his luck with BBC executives, Guido would just gently remind Roland that he doesn’t quite have Lineker’s star power…

As Gary Lineker’s off-side remark about the government’s immigration agenda brings BBC bias back into focus, the hosts of the News Agents podcast have had their say. Because who better to speak on impartiality than someone who was repeatedly found to have breached the rules.

Jon Sopel first chimed in that when he was abroad in America covering Trump “I was given huge amounts of latitude to call it as I saw it” – and BBC bosses backed him for it. No surprises there.

Lewis Goodall then shared his views, first claiming the Tories have succeeded in making sure “impartiality only goes in one direction”. He then spoke about Robbie Gibb, saying he made his life “very difficult”. Lewis complains that people would warn him that “Robbie’s watching you” because they “created this confection that somehow I was Labour supporting”. In the very next sentence, Lewis then admitted he was Labour-leaning.

Of course, Robbie would have been more than justified to keep an eye on Lewis. Whilst at Newsnight, he penned an anti-government front-page piece for the New Statesman – a flagrant breach of the BBC’s guidelines. He was considered a hostile opponent by Boris’ operation. At Sky, he was able to publish a long anti-Boris article and he used to work for the lefty think tank IPPR. Lewis was forever going over the top on Twitter and having to delete tweets when he remembered he was supposed to be impartial. Yet somehow it was the BBC that “created this confection”. Considering Lewis’ background, being indirectly told to take care with the editorial direction of his content hardly seems like the “crazy” approach to impartiality he was keen to describe.

Not content with whipping up a national frenzy over healthcare challenges faced worldwide, the BBC has found yet another global problem to pin on the government. The corporation is reporting on shortages of cold and flu medicines, leading with the headline “Cold medicine shortage blamed on lack of government planning”. It provides some insight into the prevailing views of BBC newsrooms when the solution to all supply problems is more government planning…

This is without mentioning that painting shortages as a uniquely British problem, arising primarily from a lack of planning, presents an inaccurate and over-simplistic picture of the problems at hand. Despite the BBC’s domestic attribution, such supply problems are far from isolated:

• Germany faces a “dramatic shortage in medicine”, including painkillers, antibiotics and heart medication. DW News even covers a potential free-market solution to the crisis – creating informal local markets for medicine. Guido doubts the BBC would lead with that headline.
• France has passed an immediate ban on the internet sale of “all paracetamol-based painkillers”, with the crisis blamed on a Chinese export ban.
• Canada is facing an “unprecedented” shortage of cold and flu medication. The head of Health Canada called it a “complex global problem”.
• American pharmacies have restricted sales of cold and flu medicines amidst their own shortage.

Yet again, the truth is a hard pill for the BBC to swallow…

Hat-tip: Christopher Snowdon

The BBC has apparently started contracting out its editorial policy to the socially ‘progressive’ zealots at Pink News. Yesterday the corporation accurately reported “Controversial Scottish gender reforms to become law”. All seemed fair and dandy until Benjamin Cohen of the left-wing online news site kicked up a furore over the word ‘Controversial‘, with Cohen pretending the “only thing that’s ‘controversial’ about the law is that it’s not happened for trans people in the rest of the UK.” Sure Ben, sure…

The tweet scraped just over 3,000 likes, yet that didn’t stop the BBC from giving in to the woke mob and amending their article headline to read “Changing gender to be made easier in Scotland”. For reference, the dictionary definition of the word ‘controversial’ is “giving rise or likely to give rise to controversy or public disagreement,” which is frankly an understatement in the case of the Scottish gender bill…

The absurd editorial u-turn from the BBC in response to the tiniest pressure from ‘progressives’ now means that the corporation has articles labelling things such as mushrooms, oysters, Matt Hancock, the Police & Crime Bill, wooden seats in Lincolnshire and Richard III as “controversial”, just not the Scottish trans bill.

Guido hopes Benjamin Cohen has invoiced the BBC for his time…

A senior Conservative source has launched a blistering attack on the BBC, after they published an article reporting that nurses are “being forced to strike”. The piece published last night, entitled Chief nurse calls for strike resolution after day of action, informed the nation that:

“Staff have expressed anger and sadness at being forced to strike for more pay.”

Responding to the biased language, a Conservative source accused the BBC of “doing the unions’ bidding again”:

“As usual the BBC can’t hide their leftie sympathies, and forget the hardworking taxpayers who pay their bills and are disrupted. It’s about time they explained the economic facts, rather than showcasing union talking points.”

The blatant bias undermines Mick Lynch’s claim earlier in the week that the BBC is “parroting” hard right talking points lifted from the Daily Mail. 

Guido notes the BBC quietly changed its wording, to “Staff expressed anger that they felt forced to strike for more pay.” Albeit not before Guido managed to save the article on Wayback machine…