Dave McMullan from BBCR4: "I'd never put any trans women on alongside some horrific terf" [*name edited by MNHQ]

Pathetic response from the Beeb. Didn’t answer any of my queries.

On Thursday, 8 August 2019, 16:28:16 CEST

Thank you for taking the time to contact us again. We are sorry to learn that you were not satisfied with our earlier response.

There is no evidence to support any claim that certain categories of guest have been barred from appearing. The staff member has apologised and recognises that the comments were unacceptable.

Issues of staff behaviour fall under the BBC Disciplinary Policy. If an investigation takes place regarding an allegation of misconduct, the BBC must respect the confidentiality of those involved.

The process is not part of the complaints system but subject to standard HR Guidelines and employment law. We cannot therefore provide any further detail in this response.

Having offered the above, I’m afraid we cannot correspond with you further at this first stage of the complaints process. If you are still dissatisfied, you can contact the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU). The ECU is stage 2 of the BBC’s complaints process. Details of the BBC complaints process are available at www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/handle-complaint/ where you can read the BBC’s full complaints framework.

If you wish to contact the ECU, please write to it directly within 20 working days of receiving this reply. Please explain to it why you believe there may have been a potential breach of standards or other significant issue for it to investigate.

You can email [email protected], or write to: Executive Complaints Unit, BBC, Broadcast Centre, London W12 7TQ.

Please include the case reference number we have provided above in this reply.

If you have a disability which means you cannot write to the ECU and may need the BBC to provide a reasonable adjustment for you to access stage 2, you can telephone the ECU on 0303 0806145.

Kind regards

Janine McMeekin

BBC Complaints Team

(I mean, link, doh!)

Oh, weird, my thread's scrambled! I'll try again:

Clicky link for OFCOM page

OFCOM:

Ofcom will regulate the content standards of the BBC’s television, radio and on-demand programmes. The BBC will handle complaints about its content in the first instance, with Ofcom overseeing that process and handling appeals through a transparent process. Whenever required, we will step in.

So do women who've complained and had a crap response, need to appeal and then go to OFCOM if no joy? Or can we just go straight to OFCOM?

www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-releases/2017/ofcom-becomes-the-first-independent,-external-regulator-of-the-bbc-today

I think we need to start complaining to OFCOM about BBC management.

Does anyone know how we do that?

The grown ups in the BBC management know full well about the term ‘TERF’ and all that entails, Mockers

Two possibilities:

1. It's gone upstairs, where they wouldn't know a T**F from a smurf.

2. UK Govt policy to nuclear test veterans: If we wait long enough, they will all die and the problem will solve itself.

Response to my follow up complaint just received:

Thank you for taking time to contact us again recently. This is an update to let you know that although we had referred your complaint to the relevant people, we regret that it may be a little longer before we can reply.

We investigate and reply to most complaints at this stage of the complaints service within 20 working days (around four weeks), but cannot do so every time. It depends on what your complaint was about or how many others we are investigating, and can sometimes be affected by practical issues. For example a production team may already be working on another programme or have gone on location.

We apologise for this and have been in touch with the relevant staff again. We therefore ask you not to contact us further in the meantime.

For full details of our complaints process please visit: www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/handle-complaint/.

In the meantime thank you for contacting us - we appreciate your patience.

Kind regards

BBC Complaints Team

I've just complained. Really pisses me off that this guy is proud of his misogyny and we're all helping pay the guy's wages!

Be interesting indeed to follow up emails. But I should imagine it will be: "thank you for email. We don't have anything to add"

Might be worth contacting friendly MPs or journalists. This is somebody clearly manipulating the news to suit an extreme political agenda.

I've complained again about their crap response to my complaint. Let's see what they say to that. I've asked for examples of Today progs that had GC women on to discuss an issue.

I got the same cut and paste response too.

I don't think they can even see how biased they are in favour of the anti woman TRA agenda - what does mentioning their shiny new LGBT correspondant's coverage have to do with the accusations of unacceptable bias and misogyny that I made in my complaint, fuck all I'd say.

Perhaps a horrid TERF, I dunno, some woman academic, could be an R4 Today Christmas guest editor and have a friendly chat with Ben Hunte?

I'm sure Sarah would be happy to facilitate it.

They refused on occasion to be interviewed in the same place and stamped their feet to get special treatment. BBC could have said ‘grow up and stop being an idiot’ but they didn’t.

Remember that woman author (guest editing r4 for the show I seem to remember) who ‘chaparoned’ a silly wee boy on air because he was scardey of the nasty feminists? Pair of idiots and they really showed themselves up anyway, so maybe it did women a favour. I

His claim was that he personally saw to it that a trans person did not share a space with a radical feminist.

The BBC say that he was not able to do that.

Yet oddly they have not given any examples of that actually happening. You know, they could've said something like - "we had that Germaine Greer on the Today programme debating with that Doc McKinnon.." or some such. But they didn't because it's never happened.

Right?

I too got the exact same crappy response.

They're kind of useless if they think this describes different perspectives:

"For example, the new BBC News LGBT correspondent Ben Hunte looked at the new ban on transgender people entering the US military, while the BBC News website covered the help offered by the NHS to children experiencing gender identity issues."

Pro trans all the way.

They'll have got the editor of Today or someone like her to draft the response. Exactly the same way the ASA gets the offending advertising agency to respond when you complain about misogyny, then passes it off as their own unbiased answer. It's complete bullshit.

This is the editor Sarah Sands' twitter account if you want to correspond directly with her. She sets editorial policy so will have approved Dave's anti-woman actions:

twitter.com/sarahsands100?lang=en

Here's mine:

'Thanks for contacting us with your reaction to a recent tweet from a member of BBC staff.

We raised your concerns about Dave McMullan's online comments with senior staff at BBC News and the Today programme, who respond:

"Thank you for getting in touch about the tweet by a member of the Today programme staff. The staff member concerned realises his comments were inappropriate - he deleted the tweet before apologising for the offence caused, and explained he had been ill recently. We regularly speak to staff about the right tone and content for their social media profiles, we’ve taken the opportunity to do so again here following this example.

We should emphasise that the suggestion that certain categories of guest have not appeared on the Today programme is incorrect. We have a strong track record in covering the debate over transgender rights and gender recognition, including a special report from John Humphrys hearing from a wide range of viewpoints. More recently we've had a number of interviews on the subject of transgender athletes, with contributors including Martina Navratilova, Joanna Harper, Rachel McKinnon and Sharron Davies.

Elsewhere, BBC News has examined a wide range of transgender stories from different perspectives.

For example, the new BBC News LGBT correspondent Ben Hunte looked at the new ban on transgender people entering the US military, while the BBC News website covered the help offered by the NHS to children experiencing gender identity issues.

We hope this helps to answer your concerns."

We make comments like yours available to the relevant teams and senior executives on our daily report. Audience reaction helps to ensure we’re aware of how issues like this affect people.

Kind Regards

BBC Complaints Team

I have same reply (obviously). Having had ‘grease fire’ McKinnon is apparently a good defence (while McMullan was by his own admission vetoing some ‘horrific TERF’ none of whose names or actual behaviour he could recall.) Interesting

Identical response. Quelle surprise.

But I'm not letting this go.

You lot are stars! Yeah!!!

I got exactly the same response from the Beeb. What a load of bollocks!! I have never been so 'ill' that I spouted misogynistic views that I don't usually hold. What kind of illness makes you do that???

Codswallop.

I have banged my head on the wall again too:

"You completely failed to address the fact that a BBC producer admitted vetoing voices with a gender critical point of view. (Dave McMullan tweeted; "I will add that I’ve never put any trans woman on alongside some horrifc TERF. I vetoed it , in fact. Partly just instinct but also cos I didn’t quite understand what was going on with the anti-trans at the time. I’m now reasonably good at the GRA consultation")

You claimed that "Elsewhere, BBC News has examined a wide range of transgender stories from different perspectives. " I did not ask about this, yet given you have brought it up, when have you given equal weight to the gender critical perspective? You clearly have not. You are failing to provide any balance on this issue, almost all your output across the BBC could be characterised as pro trans rights activists and as anti women. It is embedded across TV, radio and the website.

It has not been uncommon to have three or four MEN discussing this issue with not a woman in sight. Please provide the examples of GC women talking about the impact on women's rights with no opposition. You have given a lot of time to TRA voices with nobody questioning their point of view."

Here's my follow-up:
My original complaint concerned Today programme reporter and editor Dave McMullan, who tweeted on July 16 at 1.38pm: "I will add that I’ve never put any trans woman on alongside some horrifc TERF. I vetoed it , in fact. Partly just instinct but also cos I didn’t quite understand what was going on with the anti-trans at the time. I’m now reasonably good at the GRA consultation"

I pointed out that Mr McMullan had demonstrated clear bias in vetoing balanced views on his programmes, and admitted that he did so without actually bothering to understand the issue and simply labelling biological women's legitimate concerns as 'anti-trans'. This is utterly unacceptable, given the legitimate concerns of actual women and girls over the threats to their privacy, safety and dignity.

Your response confirmed he'd been spoken to, which is fair. But also stated "We should emphasise that the suggestion that certain categories of guest have not appeared on the Today programme is incorrect."

This is (a) partly true but (b) not answering what I actually said. I didn't say the viewpoints never appeared, but that the trans viewpoint was frequently aired with no gender-critical feminist perspective on the discussion. Two recent examples: 19-Oct-18, a debate on the GRA consultation on Today featuring ONLY a transman and a transwoman; no women.

Sat 29-Dec-18: Interview with Travis Alabanza, on his right to use women's changing rooms and other private spaces. No to minimal challenge by the presenter, absolutely no opposing views from women on why women's spaces exist and are closed to biological males.

If a gender-critical viewpoint has ever been aired on Today without the trans equivalent I would welcome examples.

A senior employee of yours has admitted he vetoed views he did not like on his programme, and from the language he used, has done so repeatedly. Coverage I have heard supports this. This is what I would like you to respond to before I escalate to Ofcom.