The BBC’s Justin Webb broke impartiality rules by calling trans women “males” on air, the corporations’ own complaints unit has ruled. The Telegraph has the story.
The corporation upheld a complaint against the Today presenter after he said “trans women, in other words males” on the BBC Radio 4 programme last August.
A listener complained that the comment amounted to Mr. Webb giving his personal view on a controversial matter in breach of the BBC’s requirements on impartiality.
The BBC’s editorial complaints unit (ECU) agreed, saying it “gave the impression of endorsing one viewpoint in a highly controversial area”.
Gender-critical activists said on Thursday that the ruling showed the BBC had “lost sight of its statutory duty to be impartial”.
Mr. Webb, 63, made the comment during a discussion on August 22nd last year about new International Chess Federation (FIDE) guidelines regarding whether being biologically male can give players an advantage in the game.
The BBC’s complaints unit, in a ruling published on Thursday, said it was not in a position to determine Mr. Webb’s personal opinion on the issue but that it was not necessary to do so in order to judge whether he had breached impartiality rules.
It said: “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.”
The ECU said this finding has now been “discussed with Justin Webb and the Today team”.
Worth reading in full.
Only in the topsy-turvy world of the BBC can clarifying for listeners that a trans ‘woman’ is male be deemed to be a breach of partiality, as though using terms accurately is evidence of bias! Webb was reprimanded, presumably, for failing to qualify “male” with ‘biologically’ (or ‘at birth’, as though you can grow out of it).
The implication is that, now, alongside the word woman being redefined so it is deemed ‘partial’ to assume it means a female, the word ‘male’ has also been redefined so it is deemed ‘partial’ to assume it means, well, male.
From now on, one cannot use the word ‘male’ and simply assume it takes its biological meaning, according to the BBC. One cannot any longer assume such a word refers to an objective reality. To be ‘impartial’ one must allow that it could mean whatever the LGBT lobby says it means this week. Or the thought police will get you.
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Ok but using the ridiculous term “trans women” is completely impartial. Got that. I hope Webb resigns.
They are males, no ifs no buts.
He should not simply accept this and fade into the background. Instead he should double down and dare them to sack him.
Tribunal? FSU?
Given that this is the BBC inverting itself and given that the BBC is a wholly discredited organisation and certainly not worthy of our time I think we can safely ignore yet more of their cretinous stupidity.
I’m on holiday and it’s raining so I thought I would waste some of my time complaining about this article which keeps referring to a man as a woman: Jorge Carreno murder: Scarlet Blake confessed murder to her ex, court hears – BBC News on the grounds that it breaks their impartiality rules. Let’s see what weasel words will come back to me.
Great stuff tof. I look forward to reading the response.
Me too.
Willy = Man
No willy = Woman
BBC needs to cease to exist, we’d all be better off.
Had willy removed = mutilated man
Like the bloke given the whole life tariff for a double murder today did to his male victim.
From now on, I shall assume that when the BBC uses the word “sky” it really means “ground” and visa versa.
The BBC is a place where objective truths have become subjective – even inverted.
There is nothing controversial about the biological differences between man and woman. That the BBC should seek to sow doubt about this most fundamental of matters makes me now certain the BBC is in the grip of Satanists.
One person complained about this. ONE PERSON. The BBC needed merely to acknowledge the complaint, not go all out to uphold it. Desperate times. I was brought up on BBC Radio 4 and in particular I loved their drama. All that changed long ago, and it’s now beyond repair.
They take license fee money from right wing and left wing viewers but only present left wing views. ——–How can they justify that? They can’t actually. So they use tactics like omitting things and getting Joe Bloggs off the street to say what they want to say.
There is nothing controversial about the biological differences between man and woman.
As pointed out in an older comment: Someone who is having controverses with objectively verifiable reality is – by definition – deranged as that’s not something people can have different opinions about. The sun is hot. And someone who claims otherwise is either mentally ill or a swindler.
I rather fear that my old chum Chief Petty Officer Hoare (RN ret’d.) would have found himself at a loss these days:
In a voice like an anchor being dragged up a gravel beach, “Easy to identify a woman, young ‘un – long hair, bumps in the front and dances backwards”.
Ee … it’s more complicated these days.
My friends silly daughter identifies as a hedgehog because she saw one get runover one day. Is calling her a girl a “hate crime”?
She has a death wish?
BBC News yesterday managed to report the death of this ‘trans prisoner’ without referring to him as either ‘him’ or ‘her’, or ‘he’ or ‘she’.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-68442073
What a ridiculous amount of cowardly effort to make!
I don’t mind they avoided all pronouns in the text. It was clear in the picture and from the context that he was male.
It’s not a bad strategy to skirt the issue entirely. I know someone trans, serves drinks in my pub. Most definitely doesn’t ‘pass’. I talk to him regularly, we enjoy the same music. I avoid all pronouns when talking to/about him, and I use only the person’s name, even if I must repeat myself. I absolutely won’t talk politics to him. Nor will I ever call him ‘her’
Let’s see … someone correctly stating that men are male is endorsing a viewpoint in a highly controversial area but the opposite statement, namely, wrongly claiming that some men are actually female, isn’t?
How so?
The BBC is immune to criticism. There’s a revolving door between them and Ofcom staff.
The only effective way to protest is to withhold payment. I haven’t paid the telly tax since 2019, nothing serious has happened
Drop the trans junk writing. It is a small minority of people who seem to get the majority of attention. We have had enough.
You shouldn’t have any problems to find enough sand somewhere to bury your head in it.
Just imagine the number of complaints the BBC gets every day that are either ignored or treated with word salad, and yet they choose to investigate this based on just one single complaint from a blue haired loon. So glad I no longer fund the British bullshit corporation.