They really make you work for it. I've completed the two stages of Stage 1, now I get to escalate to the BBC's Executive Complaints Unit.
The second Stage 1 reply I got today said: "Our previous response pointed to the fact that Scarlet Blake was tried as a woman and the pronoun ‘she’ was used throughout those proceedings. This informed our coverage of the trial, which also referred to Blake being transgender once it became known, and where relevant."
This is my submission to the BBC ECU:
"I am dissatisfied with the response received at Stage 1 of the complaints progress because it failed to explain why your reports failed to make it clear that the man who calls himself Scarlet Blake is a man, i.e. a biological human male with male genitalia.
^^
Many people reading your reports would not have realised that Blake is a biological male with male genitalia, and thought it was a woman who had committed these horrific crimes. (It is, needless to say, vanishingly rare for real women to commit crimes of this nature).
The BBC’s Stage 1 response said that “Blake was tried as a woman and the pronoun ’she’ was used throughout the proceedings”.
“Tried as a woman”? This statement is meaningless. There is no difference to trial procedure based on an adult’s biological sex. It doesn’t explain why you failed to mention the important fact that Blake is a biological male with male genitalia.
The BBC’s Stage 1 response went on to say that “This informed our coverage of the trial, which also referred to Blake being transgender once it became known, and where relevant”.
Blake may wish to use female pronouns, he may 'identify’ as female, and the court and the police may have indulged this fantasy - but it does not change the hard scientific fact that he is a biological human male with male genitalia.
Mentioning that he is purportedly transgender in your reports does not change this hard scientific fact.
Biological fact is inarguably more “relevant” than Blake’s imaginary vagina, and it was highly misleading to the public to make no mention of the fact that Blake is a man.
Lastly, the fact is that regardless of Blake’s purported transgender status, and the use of female pronouns during the trial, he was sent to a men’s prison. Because he’s a man.
You are a news provider and you should present facts, not evade these material facts due to pandering to transgender ideology and gender-woo. This ideology has been exposed as dangerous and harmful by Dr Cass' report this week. In light of the report, I trust the BBC is now reconsidering its position."