The BBC was forced to claim that the government had “no influence” on its policies after Emily Maitlis was punished for a monologue about Dominic Cummings after Number 10 complained. As a result, the broadcaster has come under fire from Emily Maitlis.
After BBC executives determined that Maitlis had broken the impartiality guidelines in her presentation regarding Boris Johnson’s then main advisor in 2020, a controversy erupted.
She said in her introduction to Newsnight’s report that Mr. Cummings “flouted” lockdown regulations by travelling 260 miles from his house to County Durham, making the public “feel like idiots” for obeying them.
The BBC, according to Maitlis, 51, who left the organisation last year to join the media conglomerate Global, “sought to satisfy” No. 10 by making an apology “within hours,” she said last night at the Edinburgh TV Festival.
She inquired as to whether “perhaps conveying a message of comfort straight to the Government” through the BBC.
Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s chief content officer, made the following statement during her own speech at the event today: “As we have previously made clear in relation to Newsnight, we did not take action as a result of any pressure from Number 10 or the Government, and to suggest otherwise is wrong.”
Rows over impartiality have a long history.
During her tenure at the BBC, Maitlis has been embroiled in a number of incidents involving objectivity.
2020 – Maitlis gave a harsh speech before Newsnight’s coverage of the Cummings scandal in which she said that the public “feels like idiots” and charged Boris Johnson with displaying “blind allegiance.”
In only two days, the BBC received more than 40,000 complaints over the broadcast, many of which were upset at both her remarks and the BBC’s assertion that it had infringed the regulations.
2021 -Maitlis received a punishment from the station for sharing a Piers Morgan pandemic-related tweet that it deemed to be “obviously contentious.”
The message asked: “If improper quarantining is penalised by 10 years in jail, what is the sentence for improperly safeguarding the nation from a pandemic?”
2022 – Maitlis issued an apology for retweeting a post that criticised the government’s reaction to the Downing Street parties as being “sheer tawdry Trumpian shabbiness.”
It’s difficult to see how much longer the party or our political system can survive this, the Newsnight host, 51, wrote in response to a post by former Tory Cabinet member Rory Stewart.
According to Ms. Moore, objectivity is “particularly vital for the BBC,” and viewers demand it of the broadcaster in particular when it comes to holding politicians accountable.
Additionally, Ms. Moore sent her best wishes to all of the prominent employees who have left the BBC in the recent past and noted that their departures had created wonderful opportunities for fresh talent to emerge in their stead.
She said she was “sad to see them leave,” but that it was the “normal course of things in a competitive world,” and if other outlets didn’t want to swoop in and steal BBC talent, then they would be “doing it wrong.”
The argument started in 2020 when Maitlis gave a harsh statement before the program’s coverage of the Cummings scandal, in which she declared that the public “feels like idiots” and charged Boris Johnson of displaying “blind allegiance.”
In only two days, the BBC received more than 40,000 complaints over the broadcast, many of which were upset at both her remarks and the BBC’s assertion that it had infringed the regulations.
The host said that neither the finest nor worst opening she had ever done had occurred in the argument, which had “received considerably more attention than in actuality it ever merited.”
She talked specifically about the BBC’s quick reaction to the government, asking: “Why had the BBC promptly and publicly tried to affirm the Government spokesman’s opinion?” without any kind of legal procedure?
Unless it was possibly delivering a message of confidence directly to the Government itself, it makes little sense for an organisation that is brilliantly, notoriously meticulous about protocol.
However, she said that Cummings had really been in touch with her personally the same night it aired, ostensibly to give his “wry support.”
Insiders said Maitlis left the BBC earlier this year because she was “frustrated” at being consistently “ticked off” by managers.
Theresa May’s former director of communications, Sir Robbie Gibb, was singled out by the speaker as “another active agent of the Conservative party” on the BBC board.
‘The BBC puts the greatest importance on due impartiality and accuracy, and we apply these standards to our reporting on all matters,’ a BBC spokeswoman said.
“As we have already said in connection to Newsnight, any suggestion that we took action under pressure from Number 10 or the government is false.
The BBC determined that the show violated its editorial standards, and that determination is still valid.