Mick Hartley

Suzanne Moore in the Telegraph, on the BBC and its trans promotion:

Gaslighting means the creation of a false narrative, and the manipulation of someone else’s perception of reality. On trans issues, by misinforming viewers or ignoring stories that did not fit its pro-trans agenda, this is exactly what the BBC has done.

The leaked memo speaks of “unintended editorial bias”, but this is a very neutral way of describing what has been going on. Activists within the corporation ran the LGBT desk, which is used by all of the BBC’s news programmes. This small group of journalists was committed to a “a pro-trans agenda” and “keeping other perspectives off air”.

All things trans were to be celebrated in rainbow-strewn flags in the name of “diversity”. In fact, diversity of reporting was crushed, and no difficult issues were to be mentioned. Coming out as trans was repeatedly described as euphoric, and anyone who questioned this was portrayed as a fascist.

As stories piled up about how women’s rights were affected, how surgeons in America were worried about the links between gender medicine and cancer, about the irreversible harms of puberty blockers, we continued only to hear tales of those “assigned male at birth” finding liberation after fathering children and donning an unsuitable rubber mini skirt.

The voices of “detransitioners”, the infertile and anorgasmic were not featured. The voices of women who contested the notion of gender identity itself, many of them lesbians and respected writers, were not heard.

There were rumours of a BBC blacklist, but certainly, even on a programme like Woman’s Hour, you would hear much more from trans women (biological males) than from any gender-critical feminist. Presenters were obsequious to any man presenting as female. Who can forget the sycophantic interview with Grace Lavery about his book Please Miss: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Penis?

Serious issues were ignored in favour of continual fluff pieces about drag queens or about some actress becoming “non-binary” by getting a haircut.

And it went on for years. It’s still going on. The BBC is powerful enough to live in its own little bubble, and, with no worries about finance with the license fee, there’s no pressure for change. Senior managers need to be held accountable.

We will look back on all of this – the medical negligence, the distortion and omission of facts, the suppression of those who tried to get at the truth, those permanently damaged by “gender care” – and surely feel ashamed.

That, at the centre of this misinformation and deceit is our once-cherished BBC confirms what I long suspected. Yet I am still shocked by this institutional mendacity.