BBC Bias - Collecting Examples here

[Wanderabout]

The lack of representation of the impact on women's rights on Newsnight last night while the clear problems were dismissed was ridiculous.

This thread is collecting examples of BBC failing to provide balance in representing women's concerns.

A few weeks ago a long article was written in a national newspaper by Amanda Platell regarding the BBC and its failure to comply with its own editorial values.
There is Suposed to be impartiality and fairness at the heart of its programming but as has been mentioned there is not.
Amanda pointed out the discrimination in its programming against men and boys.
This been highlighted in the provision of a femanist programme called woman's hour that is broadcast for an hour six days a week, plus a late night hour once a month.
There is no provision for men and boys to have a service like this even though half the audience is male.
This is clearly discrimination based on sex.
Today in a national newspaper it is reported that suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50, reported to be 84 a WEEK.
Women have a national platform on the BBC discussing there problems, why not men as well, we all have male relatives, let's here there story.

Vicky1990 wrote - "Women have a national platform on the BBC discussing there problems, why not men as well"

BBC Radio had a programme called "Men's Hour" which was broadcast from 2010 to 2016.

Men's Hour episode list: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t32zg/episodes/guide?page=1

I suspect it did not continue because not enough men were listening.

One measly hour per day. .... 3/4 hour that is.

Mens hour used to be on 5 live with all the men stuff.

Melamin.
What is men's stuff?.

I have submitted a complaint to the BBC and The Guardian about their failure to report the Challenor case. The exceptional length of sentence alone would have merited a report. I will also be sending one to The Times.

Excellent Lass!

Was going to post the same example. Absolutely there is bias against reporting anything that would negatively affect the sacred status of the trans persona.

Thank you for starting this thread. It is a great resource.

News outlets have no excuse now Aimne has stepped aside.

Linking threads for posterity.
SILENCE from the BBC on a major scandal that raises safeguarding issues.
Disgraceful.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3346448-Green-Party-statement
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3346800-Andrew-Gilligan-Sunday-Times-Challenor-Green-Party
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3347575-Aimee-Challenors-resignation

Even the Guardian has now reported on the Challenor conviction. But not the BBC.

BBC's ridiculous bias on trans issues is attracting wider comment:

mobile.twitter.com/helenlewis/status/1033984228365688832

The recent article on this in The Spectator was retweeted far and wide.

The BBC finally breaks their silence on Challenor, with another biased piece...

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3348977-BBC-on-David-Challoner-well-finally

Response from the BBC about my complaint- basically saying they can't respond within their own time limit

This is an update to let you know that we had referred your complaint to the relevant people and regret that it may take a little longer before we can reply. Please do not contact us in the meantime.

Although we reply to most complaints within 2 weeks we cannot achieve this every time. It depends on what your complaint was about and how many others we are handling, or may sometimes be due to more practical issues. For example a production team may already be working on another programme or have gone on location.

This morning on radio 4's "Today" programme. Interview between Nick Robinson and Sian Berry of the Green Party. Not one question about Aimee Challenor, the enquiry or the administration of the party.

No fan of the Labour party here, but earlier there was a really long section about their difficulties with the adoption of the international definition of anti-semitism

4/9 WPUK statement:
Right of reply to the BBC re Aimee Challenor
On the 4th September, the BBC published an article about Aimee Challenor and the Green Party. In that article, the following references were made to Woman’s Place UK:

‘Ms Challenor also criticised former party leader Caroline Lucas for agreeing to meet with campaign group Woman’s Place UK.

She described the group, which campaigns against proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act (GRA), as a “far-right transphobic hate group”.’

The BBC made no attempt to contact us before publication for a comment for us or as far as we can see, to investigate if the allegations made by Challenor were true.

Following widespread condemnation by our supporters (both on Twitter and through on-line complaints) the BBC contacted us to ask for a statement which we supplied.

They have since updated the article to include comments from Woman’s Place UK.

They chose not to publish our statement in full which we publish here:

“We absolutely refute the scurrilous accusation made by Aimee Challenor about us which we believe to be defamatory. Such a slur demeans and undermines the important discussion needed on this issue.

Woman’s Place UK is a campaign with around 10,000 followers on Twitter. The campaign is run by a group of people from a range of backgrounds including trade unions, women’s organisations, academia and the NHS. We believe in the right of everyone to live their lives free from discrimination and harassment.

We formed last September to ensure women’s voices were heard in discussions on proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act. We are campaigning to defend the rights of women under the law and so that any changes to the GRA work for all. We organise well-attended, respectful meetings that have trans people both on the platform and in the audience. We are committed to respectful discussion that respects the rights of all.”

We would like to thank everyone who took the time to challenge the BBC on its poor journalistic standards and to defend Woman’s Place UK.

We hope that your reaction will discourage them from allowing such comments to go unchallenged on their sites and publications in future and that they will seek to cover all views and perspectives on this question."
womansplaceuk.org/right-of-reply-to-the-bbc-re-aimee-challenor/

Response to my complaint. Not impressed. Trial verdict reported in the Indy and one or two Coventry news sites on Thu 23/8, people on Twitter immediately made the connection with AC, MN too. I sent this on Sun 26/8, by which time the Sunday Times had reported comprehensively, the Metro, Sun, Mirror had reported the trial but not the AC link, crickets at that point from the Guardian and the BBC. First news report from the BBC came the following day, I think.

This is what I said:

Complaint Summary: Not covering David Challenor trial, related issues

Full Complaint: On 24th August various news sites reported the trial of David Challenor from Coventry, a sickening case of sexual and other violence against a ten-year-old girl. He got 22 years. This is an unusually long sentence. That alone should have ensured the BBC reported on this. However, there are other issues here. DC was a Green Party activist and his eldest child, Aimee Challenor, is the GP spokesperson on Equalities and involved with Stonewall. Both have has been very influential in GP policymaking around transgender issues. DC is stated to have dressed up as a little girl while assaulting the real little girl at the centre of this case. This makes him transgender by Stonewall's very woolly definition. DC and AC have argued that the current exemptions in the Equalities Act to allow sex-segregated spaces, which are almost exclusively for women and girls, should be changed so that anyone who identifies as female, regardless of biology, can use them. This would render them useless as a protection and refuge for women and girls from male violence and is wide open to abuse from sexual perverts pretending to be transgender or men crossdressing for fetishistic reasons rather than from gender dysphoria. Now it is known that DC is exactly the sort of person who should be kept out of female-only places, this lobbying looks sinister - so again, public interest. DC and AC have also developed a tool for users of Twitter to block any account they deem gender critical, i.e. questioning their stance on gender issues. AC stated that 50,000, mostly women, were on this list. Here again a strong public interest. This is a freedom of speech issue. Finally, the GP's safeguarding procedures and AC's political judgement appear to be highly questionable. DC was AC's election agent a few weeks ago, with the trial date already set. The GP claims to have had no knowledge this trial was imminent. This all needs scrutiny. Public safety is at risk. Why has the BBC been totally silent about this case?

This is what they have replied:

Dear [redacted],

BBC News has reported the conviction of David Challenor for child sexual abuse. You can see an example of this coverage below:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-45328860

As the father and election agent of Aimee Challenor, a Green Party member who was campaigning to be deputy leader of the party, this story had political implications as it led to her ending her bid for the deputy leadership. This was reflected in our reporting of this story. The Green Party won 1.6% of the UK share of the vote in the 2017 General Election. Several factors would be taken into account when determining the level of coverage we give to a story relating to any political party, but this would include the significance of the given party in the political landscape.

The news stories that we choose to report are decided impartially, and wouldn’t be influenced by any outside agenda. Our editors choose the stories which they deem to be the most newsworthy, but we appreciate that not everyone will agree with all our decisions.

Kind Regards

BBC Complaints Team
www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

THe current case of Karen White "formerly known as Stephen Wood, then as David Thompson", (convicted paedophile and rapist) being placed in Women's estate prison has raised a nuber of very significant and important questions.

At this point in time the BBC coverage seems to be confined to a short report by local BBC team (6 sentences)
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-45436953

cf JAnice Turner Times: www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-rapists-are-a-danger-in-women-s-jails-5vhgh57pt

Sunday Times: www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/why-was-convicted-paedophile-allowed-to-move-to-a-female-jail-nmpbfm272

Spectator: blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/09/why-was-a-transgender-rapist-put-in-a-womens-prison/

Daily Mail www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6139305/Transgender-prisoner-rapist-identifies-woman-admits-sexually-assaulting-fellow-inmates.html

Jess Philips MP "This should never have happen.Those of us trying to find a way through to ensure trans/non-binary lives/services improve while also ensuring women's safety is considered this is very worrying. Anyone convicted of VAWG offences should never be allowed in a women's prison."

details from The Times article that White / Wood / THompson prior to sexualy assaulting female prisoners in New Hall had serious convictions against women and children:
(extract)
"The friend, Melissa Briscoe, recounts the rape victim’s story: “He turned up one evening with a bottle of vodka. She didn’t drink any, but she thinks that he spiked her soft drink. She came to find me to tell me what had happened. She was very distressed, crying and shaking. I took her straight down to the police station.”

“The last thing she remembers was falling asleep. When she came to, she found Stephen Wood raping her. He’d said he was going to help her, get her settled. He’d set himself up as a confidant.”

At the time, Wood was out of prison on licence after serving part of an 18-month sentence for abusing a primary school child. He was staying at the Birch Lane probation hostel in Manchester, where Briscoe was a staff member. The rape victim was visiting one of the other offenders in the hostel.

Briscoe, who also knew Wood and had access to his record, said there was “no sign at all that he was trans”, describing him as a “very manipulative” person who would “develop relationships with vulnerable residents in the hostel and befriend them”. He repeatedly breached his probation conditions, she said, and was not recalled to prison after the rape.

Briscoe, now a senior therapist at a charity, said Wood had a history of seeking access to mixed and women’s institutions to find and abuse vulnerable people. As well as the bail hostel and the prison, she said, police told her Wood had gained admission to a mixed psychiatric ward, where he had repeatedly raped a young woman patient suffering from Asperger’s syndrome.

Further, non-sexual crimes committed by Wood include stabbing his neighbour and committing severe physical violence against his former partner, her daughter and his son. A restraining order prevented him from contacting the son until he turned 18." (continues)

Surely this is a matter for the BBC to report?

Surely this is a matter for the BBC to report?

11/9 Segment on Victoria Derbyshire Show with Dr Nic Williams (Fairplay for Women) Melissa Briscoe (quoted above) and Tara Hudson.

discussed on thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3361150-Dr-Nicola-Williams-on-BBC2-at-10-15-Victoria-Live

The segment was criticised by many prominant TRAs, including TELIUK who have made allegations against Fairplay for Women.

relevent thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3361901-Attack-on-Fair-Play-for-Women-in-the-Indie

Issues with BBC Breakfast segment on GRA Self-id discussed here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3362097-BBC-Breakfast

Dr Nic Williams (Fairplay for Women) comment:
"Hello everyone. Just to let you all know that I was booked to go onto BBC breakfast to discuss the film with Juno Dawson. Juno did not want to debate with me and to cut a long story short the discussion was cancelled and I was dropped. As women, we are stakeholders in this debate and should have been given a voice in this piece - it was incomplete without it. Please make your discontent with this known by complaining to the BBC and writing in to newspapers letters pages asking why women are being let down and excluded from a very important public debate during a public consultation period."

Yesterday the BBC reported on speeches given by a representative of Liverpool Resisters and Mayor Joe Anderson.

'Liverpool ReSisters slammed by mayor in transgender row'

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-45589563

The speeches can be viewed her from 16 minutes in:

Background to this is on current thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3364329-Motion-against-Liverpool-ReSisters-by-Liverpool-City-Council