The Story of a Label

Of course, Nick Bryant wasn't the only BBC bod to brand President Trump's "go back...then come back" tweets as "racist". 

Here's Gary O'Donoghue on BBC One's News at Six on Friday:

But of course, Boris Johnson criticised those racist tweets earlier in the week...

And here's Mark Urban on Thursday's Newsnight:

After racist tweets suggesting four American congresswomen go home - three of them were born in the US - the President set his sights at a rally last night on the one who wasn't, Somali-born Ilhan Omar.  

And here's Ros Atkins on Thursday's Outside Source:

...57% of Republicans agreed with the sentiment in those racist tweets at the weekend that the Congresswomen should go back to the countries "from which they came".

 And here's David Willis on the BBC News Channel on Thursday: 

...there were chants at times of "send her back", which is an echo of those remarks, those racist remarks Donald Trump made on Twitter, and that is, of course, disconcerting.

And here's the newsreader on Thursday's The Briefing:

Some Democrats had been hoping to capitalise on the growing criticism of Mr Trump for his racist comments about four ethnic minority Congresswomen. 

And here's the newsreader on the BBC News Channel's overnight BBC World programme:

Mr Trump also returned to the four Congresswomen - the subject of his racist tweets earlier this week.

 And here's Katty Kay on Wednesday's Beyond 100 Days:

You're watching Beyond 100 Days. Democrats are about to vote on whether to impeach Donald Trump because of his racist tweets. 

Wednesday's Business Briefing saw Sally Bundock (of Tim Martin of Wetherspoons fame) reading the following headline (which appeared in the same terms on all the BBC's overnight news bulletins, several times each hour):

In Washington, the House of Representatives has voted to condemn President Trump's racist tweets. 

Ros was back in action on Tuesday's Outside Source:

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is preparing to condemn his earlier racist tweets.

And here's Christian Fraser on Tuesday's Beyond 100 Days:

President Trump lashes out again at minority lawmakers as the House prepares to condemn his racist tweets. 

Sally was also on Tuesday's Business Briefing reading this (again echoing BBC newsreaders throughout that night on the BBC):

This is The Briefing, I'm Sally Bundock. Our top story: President Trump refuses to back down from his racist tweets attacking four American congresswomen of colour. 

The first instance I heard, as we're going back chronologically, was Emily Maitlis on Monday's Newsnight:

Someone's demob happy. And today, Theresa May called out Donald Trump's racist tweet as completely unacceptable. 

But Ros Atkins on Outside Source was doing it already earlier that evening:

President Trump is pushing back over criticisms of his racist remarks about Democrats. 

And Katty and Christian on Monday's Beyond 100 Days were leading the way:

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, one of President Donald Trump's strongest allies on Capitol Hill, declined to condemn the President over his racist tweets.

And, of course, that evening's BBC One News at Six saw Nick Bryant kick it all off:

Donald Trump was at a 'Made in the USA' business event at the White House today, showcasing the kind of economic nationalism that has become a hallmark of his America First presidency. But it's his white nationalism that's caused the latest political storm, a racist Twitter attack aimed at four women of colour, three of whom were born in the USA. 

As far as I can see, that was the first instance of it. 

So, sometime on Monday evening, four BBC TV programmes - BBC News at Six, Beyond 100 Days, Outside Source and Newsnight - chose to nail their colours to the mast and brand Donald Trump's tweets "racist". 

Coincidence? A senior editorial decision? BBC Groupthink?

Whatever, the BBC is well and truly off the leash now, 'impartiality'-wise.

Upheld, upheld, upheld

Yes, complaining to the BBC does sometimes pay off. 

Here are three examples, published over the last three days.

The latest one concerns Sally Bundock's infamous interview with Tim Martin of Wetherspoons. We previously posted an earlier BBC Complaints response to criticism that was typically 'BBC' in its refusal to admit wrongdoing - except that the BBC has now admitted wrongdoing.

The directions of travel, bias-wise, here are interesting. The first suggests anti-Catalan independence bias, the second pro-transgender activism bias, and the third anti-Brexit bias.

Enjoy! 

Up All Night, Radio 5 Live, 21 December 2018: Finding by the Executive Complaints Unit 

Complaint
The programme included an interview about the political situation in Spain with Irene Lozano, the Secretary of State for Global Spain. A listener complained that terms used by both Ms Lozano and the interviewer had given the false impression that the leaders of the Catalan independence movement had been convicted of crimes. 

Outcome
As was made clear in the interview, the trial of Catalan leaders had not yet begun. However, the use of terms such as “these crimes that they committed” by the interviewer and “political leaders that have committed criminal offenses” by Ms Lozano conveyed the false impression that their guilt had already been established.
Upheld 

Further action
The presenter has been reminded of the importance of precise language, especially when legal proceedings are imminent.

The Stephen Nolan Show, BBC Radio 5 Live, 17 February 2019: Finding by the Executive Complaints Unit 

Complaint
The programme included a discussion of Martina Navratilova’s recently-published views on trans women athletes, in which the trans woman cyclist Rachel McKinnon participated. Five listeners objected to the fact that an invitation to another speaker, Nicola Williams, had been withdrawn after Dr McKinnon had made that a condition of her own participation, and complained that the resulting discussion was one-sided. 

Outcome
The decision to accept Dr McKinnon’s terms was a matter for the programme-makers’ editorial discretion (exercised in view of the fact that Ms Navratilova had cited Dr McKinnon in the article in question and that Dr Williams would be invited to take part in a subsequent edition of the programme), and not a matter for judgement by the ECU. In Dr Williams’ absence, however, there was no challenge to the views expressed by Dr McKinnon, either from the presenter or the other guest, and the result was not duly impartial.
Upheld 

Further action
The programme team has been asked to ensure that debates properly reflect due impartiality either in their casting or in the nature of the questioning.

Business Briefing, BBC News Channel, 28 March 2019: Finding by the Executive Complaints Unit 

Complaint
The programme included an interview with Tim Martin, Chairman of Wetherspoon, who was described by the presenter as a business leader “who wants a clean break from the EU”. Two viewers complained that the interview was not conducted in a properly impartial manner, with Mr Martin being persistently interrupted by the presenter. 

Outcome
In the ECU’s judgement, it would have been easy for viewers to form the impression that the presenter held a distinct view of her own on Mr Martin’s support for leaving the EU without a deal, and the interview fell short of the BBC’s standards of due impartiality in that respect.
Upheld 

Further action
It has been stressed to the presenter that the way questions are framed should make it clear to the audience that this is for the proper purpose of impartial challenge and that a personal view is not being expressed.

Sally Bundock v Tim Martin

An interview of Wetherspoons boss Tim Martin by Business Briefing's Sally Bundock in late March generated a fair few complaints. The main accusations are that Sally was rude and disgracefully (pro-Remain) biased, and barely allowed Mr. Martin to put his points across. You can watch the whole thing for yourselves here:

The BBC's complaints website has now posted the BBC's response to the criticism:

Complaint

We received complaints from people who felt that Sally Bundock was rude towards Tim Martin, and that this was biased against Brexit. 

Response

Mr Martin was invited onto the programme to talk about the way the government are handling the Brexit negotiations. We’re sorry if you felt Sally was rude, this was not her intention. Sally was trying to get to the bottom of what a ‘No Deal’ Brexit would look like from a business perspective, so her interruptions were simply to try and extract a clear explanation. It is the job of the interviewer to put across the questions that we think the listeners would like to be asked, and this was the case when Sally challenged Mr Martin on the point of tariffs. 

Regular listeners to the Business Briefing programme will be familiar with Sally’s interviewing style. She treats all of the programme’s contributors in a similar manner, and challenges or pushes for clarification when necessary. We're satisfied that by the end of the interview Mr Martin was able to put across his argument in full. 

The BBC continues to report Brexit impartially and features a wide range of different perspectives across our news coverage.

Well, that's a typical BBC response, isn't it? But are they right?

Obviously, they may have a point that this is how Sally Bundock treats all her interviewees, regardless of their views. If that's her interviewing style and she uses it against Remainers and much as Leavers then that's fine. Only monitoring her interviews for a while would show whether that's the case, or not. So until I do that I can't say one way or the other.

All I can say is that I've done a bit of counting as far as this Sally Bundock/Tim Martin interview goes. The interview lasted 7m 46s and she talked for 3m 40s of it. In other words, with all her interruptions and her talking-over she talked for a full 47% of the interview. It wasn't quite a monologue on her part, but Tim Martin might have been better having a lie-in that morning. Maybe she needs to tone her interviewing style down a bit?