Licence fee payers deserve better

By Tom Hayes / @tomhayes1983

BBC Audience Services replied to my complaint about Ben Brown’s interview with student tuition fees protestor Jody McIntrye. They linked me to a blog written by Kevin Bakhurst, the Controller for the BBC News Channel. Mr Bakhurst is dead wrong in the opinions he expressed in his blog.

Apparently, the ‘broad charge’ made by the complaining public is that Ben Brown was ‘too challenging’ in his treatment of Mr McIntyre, and that, as a disabled man, Mr McIntyre was entitled to better treatment. If anybody is doing down Mr McIntyre, it is the complainants: the BBC cite Mr McIntyre approvingly: “personally he sees himself equal to anyone else”. The suggestion is that the BBC in fact treated Mr McIntyre respectfully by interviewing him as they would interview anyone else.

My problem is this: they did not interview Mr McIntyre exactly as they would anyone else. I say this not necessarily because Mr McIntyre is disabled, but because Mr McIntyre is a student protestor. I expect challenging: I want BBC questioning to turn up answers, and I imagine the vast number of consumers of news want the same thing. I want BBC journos to pose challenging questions to all people, regardless of their background. I don’t expect confrontational, however: it is unacceptable of BBC journalists to provoke somebody in the hope that he/she will come across to the viewing public as unreasonable.

The question of intent is important. Perhaps I’m being uncharitable: Ben Brown didn’t want to provoke Mr McIntyre or make him out to be unreasonable. His line of questioning was skewed because of tiredness, perhaps. I don’t think so. Having watched Mr Brown on live television across the whole day of the tuition fees protest, there’s little doubt in my mind that this is a man with a bias against protestors. His preferred narrative is that all student protestors are unreasonable, because of their cause and their style of protesting, and that the police are put upon by them. No account is made of the wide variety of views among the student protestors, on both the thing to protest and how to do it. Things are painted black and white when shades of grey would be more suitable.

Ben Brown confirmed bias in his reporting when, toward the end of his interview, he asked Mr McIntyre about his so-called ‘radical politics’. Mr Brown put me in mind of somebody who didn’t know that expression of opinions in a blog is okay in a democracy. Blogging? Yuck, pass me a towel. Mr Brown then proceeded to suggest that it was these politics which prompted the actions of the police. Two things here. First, I doubt that the police constables responsible for dragging Mr McIntyre from his wheelchair had read the blog before doing so. If they did, I’d be amazed if they had targeted Mr McIntyre on the basis of what they had read. Second, even if the offending police constables had read the blog and acted on it, could this ever justify their actions? No. Not ever.

So, why did Mr Brown try to make this connection? I’d say to build up an image of a man that could be used to discredit the legitimacy of his claims against the police. Mr Brown is in effect saying that you are entitled to mistreatment at a protest if you have expressed ‘radical’ politics on a blog but done nothing provocative in that protest. (Well, except ‘wheeling’ in the direction of the police constables, which Mr Brown suggested was casus belli.)

I’m disappointed the BBC have called this one wrong. By closing the matter (saying ‘Ben challenged him [Mr McIntyre] politely’, which is contrary to the public charge), Mr Bakhurst makes a mockery of his claim to be ‘genuinely interested in hearing more from people who have complained about why they object to the interview’. I expected better because the BBC so often call things right. The BBC needs to be become more forceful in its response. Mr Brown allowed his bias against student protestors to interfere with his professional duty to be impartial, and that cannot be tolerated.

I don’t want Mr Brown kicked out of the BBC. At least not yet. I haven’t seen any signs of bias in his reporting on other matters, so I can’t say that he is an untrustworthy reporter across the board. If I do, I’d want him exiting the BBC newsroom stage right. But, on the issue of student protests, where his bias is so strong it cannot be contained, Mr Brown should be removed from all future reporting. And perhaps all future protests, too. That is the price Mr Brown must pay for gutter questioning. Licence fee payers deserve better.