An indefensible blunder by Beeb’s Thought Police
WITHIN the corridors of new Broadcasting House, the BBC’s editorial and policy standards unit is known as the Thought Police – and, like the sinister secret agents in George Orwell’s nineteen Eighty-Four, they sometimes target their own side.
That, in effect, is what happened to naga Munchetty, the highly respected BBC Breakfast news presenter whose parents were born in India and Mauritius – and who was publicly reprimanded by corporation bigwigs last week for daring to say on air that racism made her furious.
It was an indefensible mistake by our state broadcaster to criticise her on this issue. A bad situation was made even worse over the weekend when the BBC appeared to back-pedal. An email to all staff signed by director-general Tony Hall declared: ‘naga Munchetty – one of our stars – was completely within her rights. We completely back her up.
‘She was speaking honestly and from the heart about her own experiences. We admire her for it and she was completely justified in doing so.’ What a mess. When BBC executives find themselves in a hole, you can be sure they will keep digging furiously. The whole sorry affair should have been forgotten long ago.
It stems from a 40-second conversation live on air between Miss Munchetty and her Breakfast co-host, Dan Walker, discussing her reaction to a typically inflammatory tweet by Donald Trump.
The US President said that four black congresswomen should ‘go back to the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came’.
Plainly disgusted by that comment, Walker described the jibe as telling, and asked Miss Munchetty how it made her feel, as a woman from an ethnic background.
‘Furious!’ she retorted. ‘Absolutely furious. That was embedded in racism.’
A lot of other people would feel as angry as her, she added. I liked her passion and I’m certain that many viewers were cheering as she spoke. When presenters speak from the heart, it makes great TV. Miss Munchetty is an excellent journalist who pulls off the difficult double act required of all news anchors, male and female – inspiring trust while looking good at the same time.
Her voice was especially relevant on this story, precisely because she is not white.
AS she said, she knows how it feels to hear those hateful words: ‘Go home.’ She wasn’t just spouting a vacuous, knee-jerk comment – she meant what she said and spoke from experience.
If I’d been producing the show that morning I would have been quick to congratulate her on a strong bit of telly.
And yet one – just one! – anonymous viewer didn’t feel the same way, and filed a complaint.
Miss Munchetty’s consequent censure is symptomatic of the layers of bureaucracy at the Beeb, where the meaning of ‘impartiality’ has been lost. The corporation, of course, has a duty not to be biased, but that doesn’t mean it has to deny simple facts. It isn’t ‘ impartial’, for instance, to give equal weight to the beliefs of the Flat Earth Society. And it isn’t ‘ impartial’ to ignore perceived racism or to pretend it isn’t grossly offensive.
David Jordan, the BBC’s director of editorial and policy standards, is a decent man but he has spent so much time sitting on the fence that he’s now probably got some very nasty splinters lodged where they hurt most.
He shouldn’t be surprised that a group of prominent black media figures, including journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy and actors Colin Salmon, David Harewood, Adrian Lester and Sir Lenny Henry, have described the BBC’s warped decision as ‘deeply flawed, illegal and contrary to the spirit and purpose of public broadcasting’.
For good measure, they added that it was ‘racially discriminatory’.
That’s a good point: for the life of me, I cannot understand why Miss Munchetty was scolded while Walker, who coaxed her to speak out, was not. Surely they should both be disciplined, or neither.
Faced with a barrage of criticism from all sides, BBC executives must be bitterly regretting their mistreatment of Miss Munchetty. And yet I don’t think they fully understand yet how much harm has been done.
For all its claims about the importance of diversity, when push comes to shove the corporation’s treatment of its ethnic minority staff has been found wanting.
The lesson for the Thought Police is simple: before you attack one of your best, try thinking first.