Justin Webb Telegraph article, BBC journalists are up in arms

[Mollyollydolly]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/radio-presenters/justin-webb-trans-woman-complaint-bbc-meltdown/

Archive version here:
https://archive.ph/0gykB

Newsroom staff not happy at Justin Webbs treatment. Sounds like senior female journalists have had enough.

https://archive.is/0gykB

Good to read that there are female journalists at the BBC who are speaking out about this. About bloody time. It shouldn’t need to be pointed out that stating a fact is not stating a viewpoint.

Ah sorry, I missed your archive link and thought I was being helpful. Thanks for posting. Very very good to hear that Ructions are happening.

No worries!

It's being styled as a generational issue again.

It's all very troubling. How can verification and impartiality be regarded as if they're quaint anachronisms that will fall by the wayside as the senior people retire or are forced out.

Justin Webb was quite right to clarify what is meant by the term "transwomen". You can only be one by being a man.

The term is (I suspect) deliberately obtuse so I refuse to use it. No man is a sub category of woman.

Good article. Webb 'a well known figure and fantastic journalist' 'is seeking to learn from whom the ECU took advice on the issue.'

I hope he finds out and write an article, or does a broadcast, or both.

Does anyone know what this is referring to?

The BBC has long struggled with how to cover transgender stories, as staff clash in the newsroom and social media users criticise the corporation’s output. It was forced to admit that a 2021 online article claiming some lesbians feel pressured into sex by trans women did not meet its standards on accuracy after more than 10,000 complained about it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-57853385

That's really important. The hold that transactivists and their groups have on so many institutions in unbelievable. But also the root of why this ideology is collapsing as none of it stands up to ethical scrutiny.

'Senior BBC women have written to <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/0gykB/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/24/bbc-should-be-proud-be-progressive-tim-davie/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tim Davie, the director-general, in their droves to express dismay at the way Webb has been treated. They claim that Webb only stated a fact: although gender identity is largely a social construct, biological sex is immutable and cannot be changed.
One wrote: “Clear statement of fact is not ‘one viewpoint’ and the fact that it is ‘a highly controversial area’ makes it more important to be factual, not less. If the BBC is to censure journalists for being factual we are slipping into very dangerous waters. Once we’ve decided to dispense with public trust we have nothing left.”'

Listen to this woman.

Also:

'Between 2017 and 2022 the BBC received about 1.7 million complaints. It upheld just 126 of these and only 25 of these successful complaints centred on impartiality.Some back-of-the-fag-packet maths suggests that means for every 65,000 complaints received just one is upheld on the grounds of impartiality. Is that plausible? Especially given that, according to its own research, only 54pc of its audience believes the BBC to be impartial'

Holy moly!

I hope he sues them.

At some point the way the BBC is going its going to disappear up it's own arse.

BBC Verify is said to employ about 60 journalists. Turness says they all possess wonderful forensic skills that enable them to arrive at truths in which we can all have confidence. So, to keep them gainfully employed, perhaps they might devote themselves to one thorny question. What is a woman?

Fnnarrrr. Good on yer, Justin.

A zealous listener picked up on Webb’s words and lodged a complaint, accusing Webb, 63, of compromising the corporation’s strict impartiality rules.
'Strict impartiality rules'? The BBC.

LOL.

I got so bloody sick of their lack of impartiality that I've not paid the licence fee this year. I have zero trust in them now to report things fairly, and it makes me sad and angry as having an even-handed, independent national broadcaster is a wonderful thing. But we don't have one any longer. It's bloody outrageous that a respected national institution has been allowed to decline like this.

I do hope everyone complaining to the BBC about their coverage of stories like Scarlet Blake are including the phrase "gave the impression of endorsing one viewpoint in a highly controversial area" where appropriate.

Thank you for that tip.

@dunBle Yes - thats exactly what I did. I'd complained about the Blake reporting and so then added in the Justin Webb decision highlighting the inconsistency. Had a generic response to both batting me away. So, I've moved my complaint to the next stage.

I would like to see the breakdown of how many complaints were made for each of those upheld complaints. I'm assuming that say 10,000 complaints are made about the same thing rather than that being 10,000 upheld complaints, which in my eyes it should be! it's just counted as 1 upheld complaint?

@WomanWithoutNeedOfPrefix

How have you escalated your complaint?

I complained, got fobbed off, complained again and still got this generic answer :

This matter has been through the full BBC complaints process and the ECU’s published finding represents the BBC’s final view.

While your comments have been recorded and circulated on our complaints reports, we are unable to respond any further.

I’d happily take it further.

Agree - because it should work both ways.

Also, from the BBC complaints reports:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/ecu/today-radio-4-22-august-2023

Complaint
A listener complained comments made in the course of an interview with Dominic Lawson amounted to the presenter giving his personal view on a controversial matter, in breach of the BBC’s requirements on impartiality. The ECU considered this against the relevant section of the BBC Editorial Guidelines.

Outcome
The discussion was prompted by new International Chess Federation (FIDE) Guidelines and dealt with whether being biologically male confers an advantage in the game.

The ECU was not in a position to determine Justin Webb’s personal opinion on the issue in question but considered it was not necessary to do so in order to judge whether his words represented a breach of the BBC’s standards of impartiality.

The ECU understood Mr Webb’s intention in using the phrase “trans women, in other words males” was to underline the question arising from the FIDE guidelines but noted a press line issued at the time included an acknowledgement that his phrasing did not convey an entirely accurate impression.

In relation to impartiality, however, the ECU considered it could only be understood by listeners as meaning that trans women remain male, without qualification as to gender or biological sex, and that, even if unintentional, it gave the impression of endorsing one viewpoint in a highly controversial area. It therefore upheld this aspect of the complaint.

It did not however agree that a failure to mention the position of the English Chess Federation on this issue amount to bias by omission, given the subject and nature of this interview and its focus on the decision by FIDE to introduce a temporary ban on trans women from competing in “official FIDE events for women”.^^

Part Upheld

Honestly - this bit in particular:

the ECU considered it could only be understood by listeners as meaning that trans women remain male, without qualification as to gender or biological sex

No shit Sherlock - it didn’t need any ‘qualification’ given that ‘trans women’ refers to gender identity and ‘male’ to biological sex.

‘Trans women, in other words males’ is a factual statement.

"Between 2017 and 2022 the BBC received about 1.7 million complaints. It upheld just 126 of these and only 25 of these successful complaints centred on impartiality."
!!!
Also,
“The BBC’s style guide states we should generally use the term and pronoun preferred by the person in question, unless there are editorial reasons not to do so. In this case Justin accepts it would have been more accurate to use the term biological male.”
So rapist's and murderer's feelings are more important than truth and accuracy! (or protecting the public)

did not meet its standards on accuracy

Not sure claiming a cat killing murdering man was a woman "met it's standards on accuracy" either but there you go

This is typical of the BBC at the moment - of course they will try to repremand the only jorno who tries to be a little professional.

Never take on the likes of Evan Davies etc.