It seems the BBC is tearing itself to pieces over a throwaway line by Justin Webb, one of its most prominent journalists and who regularly presents Radio 4’s Today programme. The Telegraph has the story:
The long-time presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, was discussing new rules banning transgender competitors from taking part in women’s international chess tournaments and said “trans women, in other words males”.
A zealous listener picked up on Webb’s words and lodged a complaint, accusing Webb, 63, of compromising the corporation’s strict impartiality rules. The BBC complaints procedure whirred into action and, a couple of weeks ago, delivered its verdict. Webb, it decided, was guilty as charged. His words, the Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) decreed, “gave the impression of endorsing one viewpoint in a highly controversial area”.
Not surprisingly, some of the BBC’s female employees, in other words women, a term which the Telegraph has taken the risky decision to use, are up in arms:
Senior BBC women have written to 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.”
Needless to say, the ECU threw itself in with the lack of objectivity that plagues these furores, even though according to the BBC, “Justin accepts it would have been more accurate to use the term biological male”.
The ECU did not interview him about what he had said, nor allowed him any direct input into the inquiry it conducted. Webb is seeking to learn from whom the ECU took advice on the issue. The suspicion, sources suggest, is that the views of trans activists were given undue weight.
Anya Palmer, a barrister at Old Square Chambers who successfully represented tax expert Maya Forstater when she was unfairly sacked from her job at a thinktank for believing that people cannot change their sex, says that part of the BBC’s approach to Webb was unusual. “It seems really odd he wouldn’t even be given the chance to respond to the complaint before they reach any decision. As a matter of basic fairness, he should be able to respond,” she says.
The Telegraph incidentally estimates that only one in 65,000 complaints about a lack of impartiality to the BBC is ever upheld. Yet this time there was unseemly haste to dive in:
The ECU’s verdict in its damning judgement of Justin Webb is telling. Its statement reads: “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.”
A senior BBC News insider says: “Does this ruling mean that the BBC now considers that sex and gender are independent of each other? If so, that is an important point and if the BBC is going to report these matters from that standpoint it should definitely make that clear to the audience.”
It has also highlighted the generational tensions in the BBC newsroom, with some senior journalists alarmed at how newer recruits seem oblivious of their obligation to be even-handed in their coverage of the transgender issue, among others. One says that there may be “a failure in the way BBC journalists are trained”.
Surely not.
Worth reading in full.
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Is anyone seriously thinking that any listener is likely to be misled over the phraseology used?
More importantly, what is a non-biological male? Biology is defined as the scientific study of life, so I can only deduce that a non-biological male is not any type of lifeform and certainly the English language does not assign gender to inanimate objects (with the possible exception of references to boats as she).
Come on, BBC, clear up my confusion.
Grammar is the only place where gender has an application, except in English which is neuter.
For flora and fauna it is sex.
My pronouns are personal.
Many believe Mark Zuckerberg is a robot.
Perhaps he is a non-biological male.
Non-biological non-male.
🙂
Non human more like. Certainly, he always looks seriously medicated and not present. Creepy. Mark Zuckerbot.
“More importantly, what is a non-biological male?”
Easy. Not. A non-biological male is not. End of.
A pretender.
Being a biological male is not a viewpoint, it is a matter of fact.
A man is a man.
A woman is a woman.
Highly controversial.
Ohhh kaaaay….
As others have pointed out, Mr Webb is confused – not as confused as the loonies, but sadly the deliberate corruption of language has got to him too. A male is a male is a male, the term is intrinsically biological. Language matters.
Facts matter
This is what I got when I complained. I have followed up with further comments, awaiting response.
“Thank you for writing in – we note your concerns about our reporting of Scarlet Blake’s conviction.
Scarlet Blake was tried as a woman and the pronoun ‘she’ was used throughout.
BBC reporting in this area follows the publicly available BBC News style guide. It says: “We generally use the term and pronoun preferred by the person in question, unless there are editorial reasons not to do so.” In this case, we considered it editorially appropriate to include the fact that Blake is a transgender woman and did so across our output. We accept that should have been included in the report on the News at One on 26 February.
We greatly value audience feedback – complaints are added to our overnight reports and widely circulated. This issue has also been raised directly with senior editors in News.
This is our response at Stage 1a of the BBC’s complaints process. If you’re dissatisfied with this reply, a follow-up complaint may be considered at Stage 1b. You must submit a follow-up within 20 working days through the BBC Complaints webform. If you do decide to contact us again, please include your case number, and explain why you feel your complaint has not been addressed. We will then review your complaint.
Thank you again for getting in touch.
BBC Complaints Team”
Thanks for posting.
I can’t be the only one who’s finding this entire thing seriously tedious by now. I mean, what exactly can anyone be expected to add in way of a comment to this article that hasn’t already been said 100 times over? The sad fact is that this particular aspect of Clown World lunacy is never going away and all we have is the recycling and regurgitation of comments from all the previous times we’ve discussed this subject. Can’t we just hand it all over to the one-woman demolition team that is JK Rowling and have done?🙄 What is there left to say?🤷♀️ Just don’t comply with the nonsense, end of.
Rowling is more bolshie than nice smiling Justin so it’s to be hoped she won’t use silly terms like “biological male”.
Totally agree Mogs, its just tedious.
The only saving grace is when the libtard virtue signalers tie themselves in knots trying not to offend or fall foul of their own clown world thinking.
Just point and laugh
It is quite hilarious to see this clutter and how supposedly intelligent people are twisting themselves into ideological knots over this garbage. Or at least it would be hilarious if it were not so utterly PATHETIC.
Gender identity is a social construct invented by the people who want to bully others into accepting it. I’m a man. I refuse to have a gender identity.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/three-outspoken-evangelists-mrna-clot-shot-vaccine-ministries-come-ends/5852516
Oh dear. Three sort of prominent “died suddenly’s.
Never mind.
Karma. “Hinduism identifies karma as the relationship between a person’s mental or physical action and the consequences following that action.”
“One says that there may be “a failure in the way BBC journalists are trained”.”
Exactly. The real problem here is that Justin Webb’s reprogramming did not take place ‘just in time.’
😀😀😀
If you’re even bothering t oargue about this or you feel the need to assert some contrary opinion then you misjudge the tenor of the malaise. You can enter into the world of the neurotics and play along with them but you need to have the nous to see that this is just feeding the fire. The malady lies on a different level and that is where your energy should be focussed. Of course if you work in a job where you are forced to deny reality then you should leave that job because the loss to your soul will be far geater than the material loss regardless of its size. It is difficult if you have a family because your first duty is to your family. In such cases you need to have the faith that acting with integrity will ultimately lead to the success of your family.
“ gender identity is largely a social construct”
Bollocks. It’s a personal fantasy. It’s imaginary. Biological sex is real. We all have imaginary fantasies. Yet this gender shit is imposed on us as it were real. No other is. And the NHS ffs – what other imaginary states does it treat as real, rather than mental problems requiring psychotherapy?
So real the NHS will it seems give men cervical smear tests. YOU FUCKING WHAT? Even better, we the taxpayer get to fund this deranged nonsense.
Enough already. By a long way. Cult Transgender needs to be halted. Now.
Hear, hear.
Do you really allow yourself to become passionate and politically divided over such an absurdity. We know that a man is. Put a person in mortal combat and we soon find out. Don’t let yourself be dragged down into their gutter.
The hours is late. Personally I would be more concerned with getting to know local people and considering commodities that mght be in short supply. I don’t say this to be alarmist I am just going by my own instinct and in terms of world events you can listen to the best analysts and it is clear that a certain point is about to be reached soon, when you look at Taiwan, Ukraine, Israel. We have gotten used to the idea that war is something that happens abroad and we are an island. The latest missiles don’t give two hoots if you are an island or not. You should take these things seriously