BBC Staff could be suspended if they attend pride events

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

inews.co.uk/news/media/bbc-staff-suspended-attend-lgbt-pride-events-ban-new-impartiality-rules-742247

Given the author, I very much doubt the accuracy of this story

David Jordan, the corporation’s director of editorial policy and standards, told a meeting of senior executives on Wednesday that the new rules include a ban on attending “political protests”, such as Black Lives Matter events and LGBT prides.

According to sources, senior staff challenged Mr Jordan to extend the ban to pride events over concerns the BBC could be seen to take a side in the debate around transgender rights

TBH I don't particularly care about how impartial journalists are in their personal lives, but it's be nice to see some impartiality when reporting...

proudmumo4

This thread is a good primer on the conflict in rights, of you have the time for it.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3145470-Break-it-down-for-me

This is big news, isn't it? The BBC has been incredible one-sided on trans and other issues.

The news is being met with disinformation stemming from Butterworth's piece:

twitter.com/jimwaterson/status/1321895591304171520

Butterworth really is a crap "journalist"

More coverage on the trampling of womens rights, if men can 'identify as a woman' is a good thing. The BBC is incredibly woke-there will be feathers ruffled by this!

This story simply isn't true. The BBC isn't stopping staff from attending Pride rallies. Butterworth is an utterly useless journalist.

He's setting us up as bogiewomen who are preventing all the lovely LGBT+ people from going to their party. Horrible womens with all their precious power. Booo hiissssss..

But it's all made up in his head. It's not the case at all.

@jessstan1

Pride is not a political protest, it's a celebration.

They aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

I think the relevant questions would be around political sensitivity, public controversy, and lobbying/activism.

It's not hard to imagine some cultural celebrations for example that could encompass all of those things.

@RoyalCorgi

This story simply isn't true. The BBC isn't stopping staff from attending Pride rallies. Butterworth is an utterly useless journalist.

It's obvious to most people. Some of my normally critical friends lap up this stuff along with Pink News despite its previous unreliability, just so they can have something to moan about.

If it was true as per the headline then yes it'd be news.

I believe the BBC has clarified, LGB is not seen as political, but T is.

If that's correct, it's a step forward. It's good to celebrate LGB pride, but the T has become an attack on women's rights.

It's hugely irresponsible of Button to do this - his tweets were appalling, and it was so quickly lapped up by those who should know better. And now the fox killer is launching a legal challenge. It's all so predictable and infuriating and unnecessary. Unless I've missed something.

^ And specifically lesbians in that category.

Pride was a political protest for years and years and I thought it was very telling after the Get the L Out protests that the Pride organisers were apoplectic that a handful of lesbians had had the absolute temerity to have been peacefully political at their corporate-friendly event.

And now the fox killer is launching a legal challenge.

I saw his tweet. He used the phrase "sexual preference" to (I think from the context) to refer to the LGB which I was at.

@HDDD

It's hugely irresponsible of Button to do this - his tweets were appalling, and it was so quickly lapped up by those who should know better. And now the fox killer is launching a legal challenge. It's all so predictable and infuriating and unnecessary. Unless I've missed something.

I imagine BB thinks it’s all highly necessary! How else is he to regain the ground he lost after he was handed his arse on GMB?

It’s all entirely deliberate - bracket the T with the LGB so that anyone who expresses the view that actually issues around trans rights are also about women’s rights is shouted down as a homophobic bigot who hates gay ppl

Here's a quick thought experiment. Imagine the BBC said "you are free to use the platform the BBC affords you to disseminate partisan views of all stripes" and it turned out (this is where imagination comes in) that most were keenly spreading pro-Brexit, pro-Trump, and anti-progressive views.

Do you think Butterworth, Maugham, etc would be saying "it is wrong to tell those in the BBC in public facing roles that they should be impartial in their public pronouncements"?

Benjamin Butterworth is hysterical. By that I mean:

adjective
1 1. 
affected by or deriving from wildly uncontrolled emotion."Janet became hysterical and began screaming"

Good of them to use a female example there. Actually BBIH would make good book title.

Testerical

@gardenbird48

I don't think it is the 'woke social media activities' of a few staff that has 'tainted the national broadcaster's reputation'.

It is the reams of factually incorrect, totally biased reports/articles/interviews that are put out regularly with little counterbalance. Accusing women's rights groups of transphobia, insisting on propagating gender ideology (only last week) and turning off comments to objectors, misrepresenting the law (Ben Hunte several times) that have 'tainted the reputation' and they need to get it sorted - pronto.

I have no objection at all to staff going on marches etc as long as it doesn't affect their professional approach to work.

I'm another one who thinks this is spot-on.

I agree. BBC news staff cloistering themselves away from politics or different bits of society to themselves won’t improve their journalism. Remembering it’s key to their job to be politically impartial would though.
(By which I include being non sexist non racist and non homophobic in their politics as well as being scrupulous about the party political side of it..)

Cashman, Lord of trolling female politicians, used these types of words when he recently trolled females in politics for changes to DfE RSE.

-war words like 'battle', 'attack', 'assault'
-dystopian words like 'dark days' and

• victim's together words like 'onwards we go. Together. Only together'

-accusations like 'you've done so much harm'

Cashman's take on the BBC thing:

Michael Cashman
@mcashmanCBE
England is on the edge of something dark, guidance from DFE being changed, BBC issuing warning to staff, attacks on minorities.
I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came ..

-----------

Ugh

Cashman, needs to read this Open letter from LGB Alliance to Tim Davie, Director General, BBC

Pride for BBC staff? Pride for staff who can't speak out against a misogynist, homophobic ideology without getting abuse?. - 'as a leading trans activist said: “if gender is on a spectrum then homosexuality doesn’t really exist”'

if gender is on a spectrum then homosexuality doesn’t really exist

That is chilling. Solidarity with everyone affected by this regressive, repressive authoritarian politics.

That link to LGB Alliance’s excellent open letter didn’t work for me. It’s written in a series of tweets so here’s a link to the compilation:

threader.app/thread/1322268796556660739

sorry, I managed to add a ')' to the end of the URL. here's the correct link

Open letter from LGB Alliance to Tim Davie, Director General, BBC
30 Oct 2020
threader.app/thread/1322268796556660739

Find don’t apologise, it is a really good letter, thank you for flagging it up