'Super scared' at the BBC

 

Ben James-Naughtie-Slip-Risk

You may remember Ben Hunte as the BBC's first LGBT Correspondent. 

That was back in the good old days when they were just four letters in that alphabet. It's hard to keep track of how many there are now. Even Justin Trudeau of Canada can't keep up. ''LGDP...LGT...LGB...[and after prompting from an aide]...LGBTQ2+'', Justin stumbled.

Ben Hunte was the one who pledged himself to be a 'mouthpiece for some marginalised groups' and incurred the wrath of a departing John Humphrys for being far too much of an activist to work at the BBC. To which Ben [still working for the BBC] quickly snapped back that JH was 'showing his privilege'. Thus rather proving John's point. 

Many regarded BBC Ben as a 'mouthpiece' for extreme 'woke' groups like Stonewall [who have recently transitioned into absolutist trans activists], and a BBC report of Ben's on the transgender theme landed the BBC in such trouble that complaint after complaint and correction after correction followed as the BBC tried to clean up after him, and he eventually got shunted off to report for the BBC in West Africa. 

Finally enough was evidently enough - for one side or the other - and he left the BBC for Vice and immediately landed Vice in huge controversy for a piece attacking a Conservative MP that many said was full of holes - or, more charitably, a 'shoddy...hatchet job'. 

Well, the aforementioned Ben Hunte has another 'scoop' today [i.e. he's been chatting to some of his 'woke' activist BBC chums]: 

Exclusive: The BBC is expected to quit Stonewall’s LGBTQ diversity programme. LGBTQ staff at the BBC told me they are “super scared” by the implications of the decision, and they hope managers will change their minds… 

Now, if true, this is interesting. Is this a sign that you can be too 'woke' even for the BBC? 

Update: Ah, and now 'soon leaving BBC, ex-Editor BBC Political Programmes' and blog favourite Rob Burley is chipping in, saying: “Without getting into the rights and wrongs of BBC being part of Stonewall Diversity Programme, the suggestion that LGBTQ BBC staff are “super-scared” of leaving seems to infantilise LGBTQ staff at the BBC. Some will agree and some disagree, but are they “super-scared” really?”

Further Update: Douglas Murray isn't overly impressed either, tweeting 'Oh no! The BBC is quitting Stonewall’s gay extortion racket. What exactly do your “super scared” sources think will happen to gay BBC employees now,  Ben Hunte? Firings? Firing squads? Or sweet FA? What a racket. And what a hack.

Stonewalling

  

Following on directly from Richard Morrison's closing question in the previous post...

BBC DG Tim Davie doesn't appear to be brave enough yet.

A recent report in Times reports that the BBC is still refusing to distance itself from the increasingly controversial campaign group, Stonewall.

That controversy partly comes from claims that Stonewall has, in recent years, transitioned from being a benign movement campaigning for gay rights into a malign 'woke' force advocating for trans extremism at the expense of gay/lesbian people and women. 

But, particularly as regards the BBC, it's also because Stonewall advocates a 'diversity programme' which it wants all organisations to adopt.

Critics say that Stonewall tries to shame those who don't adopt it.

And, to a remarkable degree, hordes of nervous-if-not-terrified large organisations duly adopted it.

And then came the opposite reaction. The Equality and Human Rights Commission pulled out. And Channel 4 pulled out. And then Ofcom pulled out.

And that's when things become relevant to this blog because despite the people who ultimately rule on BBC impartiality, Ofcom, withdrawing themselves from the scheme on the grounds that their involvement with it risked compromising Ofcom's impartiality, the licence fee-funded BBC is sticking with it.

Therefore, we're in the bizarre situation where the BBC's main regulator drops Stonewall because they say involvement with Stonewall compromises their impartiality, but their charge - the impartiality-proclaiming BBC - won't or daren't follow their lead.

The BBC has, of course, put out statements. 

None address the main point of course.

The questions on my mind are: 

[a] Are BBC executives too scared of offending the 'woke' elements in their own organisation and/or too fearful of the blowback on Twitter [which the vast majority of the population ignores] to do the obvious thing?

[b] If they are, what will Ofcom do about it, given that they feel involvement with Stonewall puts organisations at a ''risk of perceived bias'' and they ultimately rule on matters of BBC impartiality ?

[c] Will Tim Davie 'grow a pair' [if that phrase it still allowed], and step in and withdraw the BBC from this scheme and distance the BBC from Stonewall?