Saturday Morning Light Breakfast

I

Fresh from having its ruling against Naga Munchetty squashed by the elegant shoe of Lord Hall, the BBC's Executive Complaints Unit has contented itself with upholding two complaints on the grounds of swearing. Mrs Whitehouse would have been delighted. 

Over the past week, two rulings have been released. The first concerned the use of the f-word during BBC One's D-Day 75: A Tribute to Heroes  in June, while the second concerned Nicky Campbell's mis-speaking of Jeremy Hunt's surname as 'C***' on Radio 5 Live in June. 

They have been fully upheld on the grounds that neither programme gave a prompt apology for the use of blue language. 

Tellingly, it's taken about three months for both complaints to crawl their way through the maze of the BBC's complaints process.

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II

Further to Sue's post about Lord Singh's aggrieved departure from Thought For The Day after (he claims) the BBC censored him on the grounds that some of his talks "might offend Muslims", The Right Rev Dr Gavin Ashenden, former chaplain to the Queen, has written a letter to The Times arguing that it's more than a storm in an eggcup:

It is more that the BBC has surrendered to a politically correct or progressive culture that pretends to want simply to avoid causing offence. But the actual effect is a wholesale redistribution of power and influence. This culture has no problem causing offence to Christians through an erosion of Christian culture and ethics; nor, it seems to Sikhs, if we take Lord Singh at his word. Instead it prefers the victim causes of identity politics and Islam. Lord Singh’s vital and principled intervention signals the increasing restriction of freedom of speech and thought that the privileges of our culture are predicated on.

Very true.

I see. incidentally, from the Times report that both James Purnell and Lord Hall got personally involved in batting away Lord Singh's concerns.

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III

Talking of the Times, the paper also reports that Newsnight's Kirsty Wark recently told a literary festival audience that she got where she is today thanks to positive discrimination by the BBC:

I joined the BBC as a graduate entry when they needed more women. I became a producer young because they needed more women in senior positions. Now I’m still on television because I’m older. I’m not quite sure it would have been the same if it were ten years earlier, but I’ve been quite privileged to have the longevity of this career.

The top-rated comment below the article rather rudely says, "Positive discrimination. That explains a lot, Kirstie [sic]."