Mick Hartley

Ooh dear. Trouble at the Beeb:

Tim Davie is facing a revolt as he is accused of letting the transgender Pride network “police” the BBC. The BBC director general has been told by staff to “shut down” the corporation’s Pride networks after a co-chair complained he wanted more influence over stories.

Mr Davie has been accused by insiders of “incredible naivety” for letting the BBC Pride and BBC Studios Pride networks expand among hundreds of staff, backing trans activism.

The Telegraph understands that staff have raised concerns directly to his office….

Now, the Telegraph can reveal that some staff are calling for a crackdown on the group, accusing it of being “homophobic” by eroding the sanctity of binary, immutable biological sex by promoting self-identified genders, thus undermining same-sex attracted people.

“Many staff are fed up with the way BBC Pride’s influence undermines the BBC’s reputation for impartiality – Tim Davie needs to shut Pride down now before its influence undermines the BBC further,” one BBC insider said.

The growing influence of the BBC Pride networks has been partly blamed as a hangover from the BBC’s long-standing ties with Stonewall, the contentious LGBT charity.

In a report in 2018 on LGBTQ+ culture and progression, the BBC heaped praise on Stonewall and one of ten recommendations was for BBC Pride to be “strengthened”.

The report was part-written by Phil Harrold, the chief of staff to the director-general and chairman, who is also the “executive sponsor of the BBC Pride staff network”….

Following the latest row over BBC Studios Pride chiefs suggesting they want more influence, a BBC insider said: “Pride believes the rights of transwomen are more important than the rights of women to single-sex spaces and sports. “BBC senior management have been incredibly naive not to understand the political nature of gender identity activism and the way it’s been tacked onto gay rights.

“People seem to think Tim is aware of the issue, but every complaint has to go through the Pride sponsor Phil Harrold, because he also runs Tim’s office.”

The insider claimed BBC Sport reporters were told to refer to the transwoman athlete Laurel Hubbard as a woman in the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, as an example of the effects.

A second BBC source said: “It’s intimidating, how much power the Pride group has on trans activist issues and there’s no one to stop them or put the counter case.

“Editors don’t want to do anything to offend internal activists because they’re afraid of the inevitable argument and internal complaints that would follow. Even if they know they made the correct editorial decision. It’s all about trans, not LGB.”

A tale that's only too familiar.