The BBC Newsnight policy editor Lewis Goodall has been accused of bias after writing a piece for the New Statesman on how the Government handled the exam crisis. In the story, he said, “a Government led by technocrats nearly destroyed a generation of social mobility”. TalkRADIO presenter Ian Collins has since erupted with a vicious rant attacking the BBC presenter.
Speaking on talkRADIO, Mr Collins said: “It was a blatant breach of guidelines. When you join the BBC the whole point is to leave your politics at the door.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re left-wing or right-wing, everyone has a right to vote but it doesn’t matter because you leave it at the door.
“Journalists are often hired because of their political backgrounds and that is fine if you’ve been a huge player in the Labour Party or the Tory party that’s hugely attractive to a newsroom.
“Not because of your politics but because of your political-thinking, your ability to see the story.”
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Twitter users were quick to agree with him as they commented on the post.
One wrote: “National BBC News and Newsnight, as well as some programs, have become exceptionally biased and they run their own agenda.”
Another added: “It saddens me to say that I do not trust the BBC for news anymore.”
A third person said: “I have not watched Newsnight since Emily Maitlis joined. Where is the BBC going on that channel? Nowhere. I, having watched it for 50 year, gave up on it. It’s woke no sense.”
The BBC has said Mr Goodall had followed “the usual internal BBC processes” by referring the article to management for approval.
The broadcaster noted the article complied with the editorial guideline which states that reporters and presenters should not offer “personal views” on political topics but allows them to “offer professional judgments rooted in evidence”.
A BBC spokesman told the Daily Telegraph: “While the piece is clearly critical of how examinations were handled by all political parties who govern in the UK we do not control how the piece is presented on the cover when published.”
“Had I not really pushed hard with the BBC there wouldn’t have been any voice at all to moderate the impartiality on that programme.
“I think it got the most complaints of any programme in history by the BBC for political bias. Quite rightly, too.”
TalkRADIO host Dan Wootton asked: “On the night, did you get any sense that Emily Maitlis realised she overstepped the mark or that she was going to do something quite unprecedented?”
Mr Bridgen added: “I didn’t speak with Emily until I went on air but I spoke to the editor of Newsnight and told him what I was intending to say.
“I gave them my views on the topic and I was told by Newsnight that they had never heard anyone express my views before and my response to that was, ‘You won’t if you only hang around the Guardian tea room’.”
