Mick Hartley

The fuss over Justin Webb rumbles on. Last year the Today presenter, talking about trans players in chess, said "trans women, in other words males”. You might think it was a useful clarification since a lot of people are never quite sure which way round it is – are trans women men presenting as women, or women presenting as men? Anyway, predictably enough, a complaint was made which the BBC upheld, and Webb was duly censured for appearing to take sides in a controversial debate – rather than stating an obvious truth. The BBC's complaints unit took another look last month, and upheld the complaint. Webb had "breached impartiality rules". His comment "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". Phew. 

Tim Davie, the BBC Director General, speaking to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of MPs yesterday, denied that the Beeb was in any way biased in the trans debate. Webb should have said "biological males": that's the approved terminology. But, “we have to be kind and caring in this and listen to people and be nice.”

Former BBC journalist Cath Walton in The Critic:

Thanks to the final straining filaments of the public remit, we now know that BBC News has an Editor-in-Chief who believes his duty is to be nice to middle-aged men who imagine themselves to be women. 

It’s not to tell the truth about them — that they’re men. Heaven forfend anyone tries to tell certain people what they do not want to hear. “We have to be kind, and caring, and nice,” says Tim. His emphasis….

“I don’t think we suffer from bias”, he insisted, immediately before confirming that Today presenter Justin Webb breached BBC rules by telling the truth, in describing a trans-identified man as male. “This is all being whipped up in a way that’s deeply damaging to civilised debate.” 

This was served with the claim that the BBC doesn’t have editorial “no go areas”. Yet it is out of bounds to call men “male”? The lack of critical thinking here is stunning. 

Tim’s problem is that he’s being played. He’s not an activist — and neither is David Jordan, Head of Editorial Policy, who was sitting next to him — but they obviously swim in a sea of activism, and do not possess the acuity to understand the game. The BBC’s job is first, to tell us the truth, and then to add evidence and context. That’s pretty much it. Tim has fallen victim to a narrative that the truth is hurtful, so it’s better to disguise it, or leave it out altogether….

Tim really needs to start meeting groups of women again who might be able to enhance his understanding of impartiality and activism. He doesn’t understand, for example, that once you have decided that it’s not harmful to pretend that men are women, you have already picked a side. He doesn’t understand what a breach of journalistic principle it is to describe a lie as impartial, and the truth as biased.  

He also doesn’t understand — and would probably scoff at — the level of linguistic activism to which the BBC is relentlessly subject. It’s invisible to him.  

The BBC had already handed over the words “woman” and “man” to trans activists. Now it has gifted them the words “male” and “female”. We are reduced to “biological male” and “biological female”.   I’m sure Tim thinks he’s found a nice middle ground, where everyone will be content.

Not so. Activists will certainly come for “biological”. Some already are. Activists like India Willoughby say they are “biological females”, and some BBC journalists have been warned in conversations that the use of the phrase is itself transphobic.

Davie ought also to think that perhaps the reason he received only a handful of internal complaints about Justin Webb’s reprimand is that he runs a cowed organisation, where women are afraid to raise the issue for fear of bullying or career repercussions. 

It’s clear now, however, that gender theory capture has crept up to the top of the BBC.  We have an Editor-in-Chief who thinks that telling the truth isn’t nice. There’s no greater failure.