Justin Webb and the trans row causing a ‘meltdown’ at the BBC
by Robin Aitken and Liam Kelly, Telegraph:
The Today presenter’s rebuke for a remark about ‘trans women’ has enraged his colleagues – and raises questions about the BBC’s true agenda.
It is not, on the face of it, a particularly controversial statement. Justin Webb, 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”.
By attempting to clarify one aspect of a knotty subject last August, Webb inadvertently opened a can of worms that has sparked an “absolute meltdown” – in the words of a senior insider – in the BBC newsroom.
The incident also calls into question how the BBC, which is currently desperate to burnish its credentials for impartiality and balance, deals with complaints about its editorial output.
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.”
BBC sources say that the ruling has gone down like a cup of cold sick, especially among prominent female presenters. 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.
Read here (£)
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