The BBC’s outgoing head of news has told LGBT staff they “have to get used to” hearing things “they do not personally like”.

[ChristinaXYZ]

From The Telegraph - looks like there is an attempt by BBC management to assert the corporations duty to report all sides:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/14/get-used-hearing-things-dont-like-bbc-news-chief-tells-gay-trans

Apparently:

"In an “extremely hostile” Zoom meeting with the corporation’s Pride network, Frans Unsworth allegedly told employees last Friday they must get used to hearing opinions they disagreed with."

and also:

"Two sources present at the meeting claimed Ms Unsworth,63, said: “You’ll hear things you don’t personally like and see things you don’t like, that’s what the BBC is, and you have to get used to that.”

Ms Unsworth, who is due to leave her position in January, added: “These are the stories we tell. We can’t walk away from the conversation.”

A BBC journalist at the meeting said: “Fran was totally calm but determined about it. was totally calm but determined about it.

“She was reacting to questions from the network that implied people shouldn’t come across views they disliked. To me, it felt like she was having to explain journalism to idiots.” "

The article goes on further to note:

"Meanwhile, Tim Davie, the BBC’s director-general, has attempted to reassure staff over the corporation’s recent departure from Stonewall’s diversity champion scheme and that he was concerned about LGBT inclusivity.

However, Mr Davies was reportedly told by a member of staff that he was not in a position to make decisions on the issue “because he’s not trans”, while another claimed the BBC was “institutionally transphobic”."

A trans woman who wants to stay because her team supports her, even though she feels that the wider organisation does not, added: “There’s a huge amount of emotional labour involved in staying right now.
Does this person know what emotional labour means?

@Packingsoapandwater

I find this all very strange. I assume, which may be very stupid, that this is people in non-journalistic parts of the BBC, demanding BBC does journalism "different": i.e. turns itself into a propaganda machine for a certain strain of thinking.

But then I am confused. I have worked at lots of different workplaces, both public and private, at different levels, and this whole story just seems so bizarre. How are the BBC even having these kinds of hostile Zoom meetings in the first place? In the places I have worked, if you behaved like that in a meeting with a senior executive, there'd be a serious problem. At the very least, your card would be marked. So I have to ask: why are these people not scared of losing their jobs? Why do they even think they can do this in the first place?

And crying on work chats over it? That would surely instigate management intervention, wouldn't it? If I was in tears over a work policy issue, I'd probably be referred to occupational health.

I really can't understand what's going on here. The BBC seems to be a highly dysfunctional workplace.

It's not just the BBC. The Guardian has had very junior and inexperienced staff signing letters etc telling senior management off for allowing wrongthink into the paper. J K Rowling's publisher had some very junior and inexperienced staff trying to insist that they couldn't possibly work on their company's most important and lucrative client because of her appalling bigoted views. I was pleased to see that in the latter case at least senior management explained promptly and firmly that this was a non-starter. Given how incredibly difficult it is to get a job in publishing or the media without a huge amount of help from family/friends (unpaid internships etc etc), it really takes the biscuit that the privileged few who get these incredibly rare opportunities then try to lay down the law about what they will and won't be exposed to in working hours.

@2319inprogress

"To me, it felt like she was having to explain journalism to idiots." absolute gold

The messages about crying part is just beyond weird or a massively pathetic attempt at manipulation which suggest the BBC has bowed to that kind of manipulation in the past

I thought that was fantastic too.

@ArabellaScott

Ben Hunte reports:

www.vice.com/en/article/n7nv97/lgbtq-employees-are-quitting-the-bbc-because-they-say-its-transphobic

'A non-binary employee who recently left the BBC, specifically because of transphobia, said they ended up leaving because they were not able to be their “authentic self inside or outside of the workplace.”'

Come on, this is just bizarre.

Who the hell is able to be their "authentic self" in the workplace?

My "authentic self" has a habit of thinking about a certain subject category in another language. Is the idea that I should be allowed to swap into a language that no one will understand half-way through a meeting?

I mean, that sort of stuff can be hard-wired. I have members of my family that have been doing mental arithmetic in their mother tongue and translating it into English in their heads for nigh on sixty years. Should they have claimed discrimination because the boss wouldn't force other co-workers to use google translate whenever some sums came up?

authentic self inside or outside of the workplace

Ffs how does the BBC impact on them being their authentic selves outside of work?

What the hell are these people on?

I was never able to be my authentic self in the workplace. I am one of the world's greatest procrastinators. Could I mention this openly? No. Also, there was a deeply unfair prejudice against open eye rolling and plain speaking when in the presence of fuckwits being fuckwits.

authentic self inside or outside of the workplace

I’m a bit worried about how this “authentic self” can’t be manifested at work in a normal office environment unless it’s a “safe space”. WTF is this “authentic self” they bringing to work?

I'm not even really clear on what an 'authentic self' is, tbh.

they are

They are manipulative narcissists, plain and simple, and they are having the cold light of day shed on them which they don't like.

Oh, snap, Eko.

It's just a meaningless platitude, isn't it?

What the hell are these people on?

I don't know, but it seems very potent.

Maybe they have got confused and it’s an “authentic elf” they want to bring to work.

@Youdonthavetobegood

I used to work at the BBC. Its hard to understand from the outside, but it really is like a big sixth form common room. Everyone is young, even if their not, and all feel duty-bound to tell everyone exactly what they're feeling, lest they appear inauthentic. Feeling 'unsafe' is the criticism du jour. In fact, I can't imagine any other workplace pandering so much to the various pyschodramas. It's really hard to imagine how exactly they feel unsafe. Working anywhere else, they would be given short shrift, or told to leave the drama at home

Jesus! I work in an educational setting and except for young children, I think I’d be asking them to continue the conversation when they were able to be a professional about it.

@Ekofisk

authentic self inside or outside of the workplace

I’m a bit worried about how this “authentic self” can’t be manifested at work in a normal office environment unless it’s a “safe space”. WTF is this “authentic self” they bringing to work?

Yes, it definitely sounds like something better kept firmly under wraps! For all our sakes.

Agree that this is the staff LGBT network. My wokeplace had similar hysterical howls of ‘transphobia’ when it withdrew from Stonewall. Senior management were not impressed but having created and sponsored these networks, they feel obliged to consult with them.

I have attended one zoom meeting and it was such hyperbole. It was impossible to be a dissenting voice in the face of the true believers.

This is so dispiriting. The brass neck of vetoing what news can be reported on by a publicly funded broadcaster!

These groups are everywhere so this must be happening all over the world. Lawyers objecting to what legal advice they give. Human rights workers cherry picking who has rights. Police making personal decisions on what laws are important.

@OperationDessertStorm

This is so dispiriting. The brass neck of vetoing what news can be reported on by a publicly funded broadcaster!

These groups are everywhere so this must be happening all over the world. Lawyers objecting to what legal advice they give. Human rights workers cherry picking who has rights. Police making personal decisions on what laws are important.

It's fairly mind boggling, isn't it?

The TRAs are setting up a drama triangle with them as the crying victims, the BBC organisation as the controller and they want the public to be rescuers.

In reality the TRAs are the controllers and the public need the BBC to step up to report fairly on women, children and homosexual people's needs and the risks that self ID brings.

@Ekofisk

authentic self inside or outside of the workplace

I’m a bit worried about how this “authentic self” can’t be manifested at work in a normal office environment unless it’s a “safe space”. WTF is this “authentic self” they bringing to work?

You know, there's something here that makes me think these people have no concept of the economic self. It is as though they believe their employers are hiring them as a total phenomenon, rather than just a set of skills or a body of knowledge.

There's a lot of interesting things to unpick here: the influence of the rise of the "celebrity personality brand" in popular culture, for example.

It's all very "my job is me and I am my job" somehow.

@Packingsoapandwater

What the hell are these people on?

I don't know, but it seems very potent.

Doesn’t it!!

@MauraandLaura

Bravo BBC I might start watching again!

Absofuckinglutely!

Looks like the BBC realised they were on a direct route to losing the whole licence fee set up and this is them now trying to regain some control over the narcissistic culture of “authentic self” that has proliferated there.

It really looks like a spectacular failure of management that allowed things to get this bad in the first place. And so far it does look like Tim Davie is doing a better job than has been done hitherto. Tony Hall was his direct predecessor, I suspect that man has a lot to answer for.

I mean, that sort of stuff can be hard-wired. I have members of my family that have been doing mental arithmetic in their mother tongue and translating it into English in their heads for nigh on sixty years. Should they have claimed discrimination because the boss wouldn't force other co-workers to use google translate whenever some sums came up?

Oh my goodness this is really interesting, one of my colleagues does the same. I wonder why it is mathematics that means they revert to mother tongue. They said they didn't realise they did it until someone commented that they took a longer time to give an answer translate - work out - translate.

A quote from that hilarious Ben Hunte piece:

”I know about eight trans people that left the organisation in the past 12 months because they don’t believe that the BBC is impartial anymore”

I mean, “impartial” isn’t really a synonym for “massively biased in favour of TRA ideology”, is it now? And these people think they’re journalists?

Seems like absolutely terrific news to me if there really is a mass exodus from the BBC of adherents of a profoundly misogynistic, reality-denying ideology. The institution will be infinitely healthier without them.

I wonder how they’ll get on in the real world. I suppose there’s always Vice.