"The BBC are not referees, they are reporters", someone said today. Well, the BBC's Reality Check suggests they think otherwise.
Its leading light, Chris Morris, has a new piece tonight and he's definitely playing referee over the claims made by "a group of Tory MPs" and "the pressure group Economists for Free Trade (EFT)" in favour of a "clean break" from the EU with the UK defaulting to WTO terms after we leave the union.
Just look at the first claim examined. Chris Morris immediately rules that some of their calculations and assumptions don't "stand up to scrutiny". He then says they "assert" something, and further undercuts their claims that their "minority view" is in fact the correct one by bringing in one of their keenest critics, Prof. Alan Winters and quoting his rebuttal. A link is then given to another group of economists rubbishing the EFT. Chris then says that the Tory Brexit supporters are, however, "unbowed" (citing Jacob Rees Mogg) and then returns to the EFT and quickly rules one of their figures to be "slightly inflated". And, finally in this section, he then turns another of the group's contentions back on them.
Now, that most certainly isn't just reporting. He's brandishing yellow card after yellow card, presumably so that readers will assume that the Tory MPs and the EFT deserve a red card for their claims here.
