Ripx4nutmeg's Top 40 BBC pro 'trans' agenda

As a thought experiment I have just edited the BBC article (see bits in CAPITALS) to make it less "transphobic" and more like I would expect from the BBC. In contrast trying to edit the article to make it more pro GC is pretty difficult (just about the only thing I could think of was changing the "some" in the second paragraph to "much"). On the face of it the BBC seem to be showing that they are much less biased than they were before. Promising signs, IMHO. (very long way to go of course)

Bristol's former leader of the Green Party has resigned as she believes some of her colleagues' actions have "undermined the democratic process".

Councillor Paula O'Rourke announced on Wednesday she was resigning from the party after other Green councillors walked out of Bristol City Council meeting attended by ANTI-TRANS campaigners who felt some of the council's language "erases" CIS-women.

Councillor O'Rourke said: "I've taken this step because I feel that I need to protect free speech."

A Green Party spokesperson said politicians everywhere cannot be expected to stay in a room if they "feel under attack for their very existence or for the existence of their colleagues".

A number of Green councillors walked out of a meeting in September and November, refusing to listen to some ANTI-TRANS campaigners.

The debate centred on discussions around the use of single-GENDER toilets in the city and TRANS-INCLUSIVE language used in BIRTHING units.

Councillor O'Rourke said she believed "the democratic process has been undermined" when councillors walked out, and "all Bristolians deserved to be listened to by their elected members".

"As an elected representative, you need to be resilient, there needs to be a certain amount of stoicism, you need to listen to everybody," she added, describing the walkouts as "intimidating" for members of the public.

Councillor O'Rourke is keen to stress that her decision has nothing to do with her views on trans rights.

"I don't in any way diminish or deny transgender identities," she said, "I think that transgender people should live open and dignified lives.

"But I also believe that people with gender-critical views should be able to come to the council chamber and make their points. Both rights exist and they should be able to coexist."

She added that she will now serve as an independent councillor, aiming to "facilitate, lead, and move the debate forward".

The Green Party thanked councillor O'Rourke for her time and said they were "disappointed" that she had stepped down.

"While we agree that members of the public have every right to make statements to their elected representatives, we also believe that councillors have every right to feel safe in their place of work," a spokesperson said.

"Expressing a point of view does not mean ignoring the impact words have on people."

A green party councillor in Bristol has resigned over her fellow party members sabotaging discussions on women's rights and walking out of meetings with GC viewpoints.

This is the BBC write up of it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2025v7qleo.amp

"Bristol's former leader of the Green Party has resigned as she believes some of her colleagues' actions have "undermined the democratic process".
Councillor Paula O'Rourke announced on Wednesday she was resigning from the party after other Green councillors walked out of Bristol City Council meeting attended by women's rights campaigners who felt some of the council's language "erases" women.
Councillor O'Rourke said: "I've taken this step because I feel that I need to protect free speech."
A Green Party spokesperson said politicians everywhere cannot be expected to stay in a room if they "feel under attack for their very existence or for the existence of their colleagues".
A number of Green councillors walked out of a meeting in September and November, refusing to listen to some women's rights campaigners.
The debate centred on discussions around the use of single-sex toilets in the city and language used in maternity units....

You have to get 10 paragraphs in before the Trans word is mentioned. Uncomfortable news for them?

We see it on MN, how the focus gets changes from being centred on these basic and fair women's needs to a sudden guilt trip and accusations of 'phobia' when no one in that particular conversation has even mentioned anything to do with sexually inappropriate behaviour.

Yes this over and annoyingly over. Never actually engaging with the issues, but you’re all bigots not allowing these most marginalised men ever. Frustrating.

The presenter may have been naive rather than sinister but it’s nevertheless incredible that a physician - trained to do no harm - did not hesitate to use children in such a transactional and instrumental manner.

Essentially choosing children because instinctively she’d have known that children themselves have little ability to question adults asking to be escorted into a bathroom but also that other concerned adults might hesitate to question a trans person if they were ‘camouflaged’ by the presence of a child.

At best, you can say that person has highly questionable judgment.
At worst…?

The Wayback Machine snapshot was taken on the 4th and says "biological male".

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20251104201354/www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8dr0geyp1mo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20251104201354/www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8dr0geyp1mo

Yes! All I want from a quiz contestant is that they know all sorts of weird things and have very rapid recall. I don't give a toss whether they're quirky or not.

Disproportionate representation from the nerd community which might have some bearing on matters

I had assumed this too. More annoying if lots of trans males have been deliberately picked for good telly. The % of men and trans ID men must be very disproportionate to the general population.

Personally I'm not fussed about University Challenge. I had assumed the high level of trans ID men on there was because a lot of the contestants have autism and therefore correlated with a higher level of trans ID than the general population.

Also not sure what the problem with the football commentator was. Assume he knew about football like the other presenters and no reason for trans people not to have public facing roles disconnected from their trans identity. Probably the most healthy approach.

The stuff aimed at children and the ignoring of the real issues raised really angered me.

do we know that this article hasn’t been updated since it was first published?

I stand corrected.

Good grief. I don't normally think of myself as a credulous and naive person, but I absolutely took it for granted that University Challenge worked like this:

Invitation goes out to universities and all the Oxbridge colleges
Each institution attempts (or doesn't) to recruit a team
The team sits some sort of test
The ones that score best go forward to the recordings.

Surely it did work like this in the days of Bamber Gascoigne? <clutches straws>

An amazing thread, thanks OP

Sorry to not have RTFT before responding but, within certain bounds, the BBC absolutely do pick the university challenge teams.

When I was in the UC team for my uni (< 10 yrs ago) both uni UC teams were invited to Manchester to audition - each uni could apply with 2 teams. The 2 teams we sent had been selected carefully, mix of men and women, mix of subjects, mix of UG/PG/mature and the best 8 quizzers.

Throughout the audition day, which consisted of quizzes and interviews, the production team repeatedly said that the selection wasn’t on the basis of “highest score” but on the basis of “best TV”.

Obv we knew only one team from our uni max would make it through. But to our surprise, when the selection came through, as decided by the production team on the basis of “best TV” it wasn’t either team we’d put up, it was all the men from team A and the man from team B and all scientists.

Yes and on R4 6pm news yesterday 😮

It’s driving me mad that intelligent people who work in the media are calling it the “Panorama mistake”. A heavyweight documentary like that passes through teams of producers and lawyers, if that was a mistake it was a monumental howler.

did anyone watch News at 10 on the BBC last night? A report on the Darlington nurses’ employment tribunal that dispassionately spelled out the issue, including saying ‘Rose, a biological male who identifies as a woman’ several times. And they actually showed video footage of him!
I had to pick my jaw up off the floor - there is absolutely no way that would have been delivered in that way this time last week - it hasn’t even been covered until now.
Things can change very fast when someone higher up the tree says ‘sort this shit out’

The Croxall thing is problematic because the default from the BBC was 'people'. It never should have been.

That is bias there in a nutshell. It's not normal everyday use of language which the BBC should aim form. It is activist language with the aim of inclusion. That's political. The language the BBC use should be common every day language.

Not only this but it's sexist and erases women And women's issues. There is no similar parallel with the use of the word man.

Croxall then got shit for correcting this and 'pulling a face'. Again not ok. She shouldn't have been put in this position.

Alistair (which my phone autocarroted to “Blister”, which seems remarkably fitting) does not get women’s issues. Women are just non-men who - entirely inexplicably - behave and think differently from men and can therefore be disregarded.

He’s also one of the “so open minded their brains fell out” cohort who think that a) everything they don’t like is right-wing and therefore inherently wrong and b) the ends justify the means when it comes to protecting the views, policies and organisations he believes to be good and correct.

I thought he was a dick before and this has not improved my opinion of him. I give TRIP a wide berth, TRIH is far more intelligent and entertaining.

I mean it's a bit like putting up an electric fence to keep animals out of an area (humans are animals) - they soon learn to avoid it. It becomes instinctive and after a while you could replace the fence and as long as the animals are the same, they'd avoid it the same.

Trans has been like this - the consequences of speaking the truth have been so severe for so long, most people instinctively avoid it and go along with lies. It'd take a lot for people to actually believe they weren't going to be punished, labelled 'far right', socially shunned etc for simply stating facts and I can't see it happening in the BBC. You can't turn the culture around so quickly.

As far as Only Connect and University Challenge are concerned - as soon as they feature a man trying to identify as a woman I reach for the off button. I am just not prepared to watch them.

I was about to say Matthew D'Ancona is really on the ball with this and the two Matts are a good listen.

Yes, as soon as the Supreme Court judgement came out the New European had a very positive article by him about it. And they published my letter the following week, thanking them for doing this.

Of course, for balance they had to have a few weepy letters from the trans activists, but on the whole, it's been one of the better media outlets.