Dan: My regrets over Naga’s Trump storm
TV presenter Dan Walker has told how he feels he should have spoken out to support his Breakfast co-host Naga Munchetty over her comments about Donald Trump.
A complaint against Naga was partially upheld after the BBC found she had criticised the US president’s motives in saying four female Democrats should “go back” to “places from which they came”.
But it prompted public outrage and BBC director general Lord Hall then reversed the decision.
As well as regretting his lack of action, Dan, 42, believes the BBC should have offered a stronger defence of Naga and himself.
Speaking in the Radio Times, Dan said: “Breakfast isn’t the 10 o’clock news.We are there to share a bit of ourselves, and maybe we shared a bit too much. At the time it felt a very natural conversation.We knew in that moment that it was different to the sort of things we usually talk about. But I don’t regret it, and I don’t think Naga does either.
“This is the first time I’ve said anything, out of respect to Naga. I asked her at the time if she wanted me to speak about it. I felt I should have said something in support of her, but she didn’t want any more attention. The day the story came out, I wrote to Tony Hall, saying, ‘If Naga is guilty, then I’m guilty’.” He added: “The BBC should have given a more robust defence of their presenters. It could have been dealt with very differently. It was the right decision to overturn the original finding, but it didn’t need to get that far.” Dan asked Naga about Mr Trump’s comments last September. She said: “Every time I have been told, as a woman of colour, to go back to where I came from, that was embedded in racism. Now I’m not accusing anyone of anything here but you know what certain phrases mean.”
After a complaint against her was upheld an open letter was published from 44 stars, including Sir Lenny Henry, demanding the broadcaster overturn the decision.
They called for BBC management to “issue support for journalists and acknowledge there can be no expectation of ‘impartiality’ over expressions and experiences of racism”.
Days later Lord Hall said Naga’s words were not “sufficient to merit a partial uphold” of the complaint against her. She had been found to have breached the BBC’s guidelines over comments she made about a tweet from Mr Trump about four female politicians of colour.