BBC News is not institutionally biased, Deborah Turness says
Deborah Turness, the outgoing CEO of news, said the following as she arrived at the BBC this morning in London:
I would like to say it has been the privilege of my career to serve as the CEO of BBC News and to work with our brilliant team of journalists.
I stepped down over the weekend because the buck stops with me. But I’d like to make one thing very clear, BBC News is not institutionally biased. That’s why it’s the world’s most trusted news provider.
She was quoted as having said that “our journalists aren’t corrupt and I will stand by their journalism”.
Turness made her name as editor of ITV News, before moving to New York in 2013 to run the sprawling NBC News operation.
In 2021, Turness returned to ITN – who make news programmes for ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 – as chief executive.
She has been the CEO of BBC News since 2022, overseeing BBC News and Current Affairs programming and having responsibility for a team of about 6,000 people.
Key events
Here are some more comments from the outgoing BBC News head Deborah Turness, who answered questions on her way into BBC broadcasting house in central London this morning.
Journalist: Do you think that the journalists are corrupt like President Trump says?
Turness: Of course our journalists aren’t corrupt. Our journalists are hardworking people who strive for impartiality. And I will stand by their journalism.
Journalist: Is there institutional bias at the BBC?
Turness: There is no institutional bias. Mistakes are made, but there’s no institutional bias.
Journalist: But why weren’t the mistakes dealt with on Trump, on antisemitism, on women’s rights?
Turness: I’m sure that story will emerge. But for now, I’m going to go in and see our teams.
BBC director general was slow to act, culture committee chair says
We have heard from Culture, Media and Sport committee chair Caroline Dinenage, who has suggested that the outgoing BBC director Tim Davie ignored an internal dossier into bias at the BBC (see post at 09.06 for more detail on the dossier).
She said Davie “ignored” concerns raised in Michael Prescott’s report over the way the speech by Donald Trump was edited for Panorama.
Dinenage said she is expecting a letter for BBC Chair Samir Shah later today, but confirmed that it has not yet arrived.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today:
I’m very sad about Tim Davie stepping down. I think he was an effective leader at the BBC.
I think he was a great champion for public service media, but there is no escaping the fact that he was very slow to act on this particular issue. But this isn’t the first time and on this particular issue, Michael Prescott’s report, he just didn’t take it seriously until it was too late.
He should have reacted with concern and examined the claims, but just ignored it.
But you know, I do feel it was entirely avoidable and it’s really regretful given the huge commitment to the BBC and public service that Tim Davie demonstrated.
Dinenage added that she thinks it seems “a little bit odd” that her committee has not yet heard from Shah, who is expected to apologise for the way a speech by Donald Trump to crowds at the Capitol on January 6 2021 was edited for current affairs programme Panorama.
BBC News is not institutionally biased, Deborah Turness says
Deborah Turness, the outgoing CEO of news, said the following as she arrived at the BBC this morning in London:
I would like to say it has been the privilege of my career to serve as the CEO of BBC News and to work with our brilliant team of journalists.
I stepped down over the weekend because the buck stops with me. But I’d like to make one thing very clear, BBC News is not institutionally biased. That’s why it’s the world’s most trusted news provider.
She was quoted as having said that “our journalists aren’t corrupt and I will stand by their journalism”.
Turness made her name as editor of ITV News, before moving to New York in 2013 to run the sprawling NBC News operation.
In 2021, Turness returned to ITN – who make news programmes for ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 – as chief executive.
She has been the CEO of BBC News since 2022, overseeing BBC News and Current Affairs programming and having responsibility for a team of about 6,000 people.
What sort of bias has the BBC been accused of?
The Telegraph’s leaked BBC memo suggested a range of issues at the BBC, not just the way Donald Trump’s Capitol speech had been selectively edited for the Panorama programme.
The leaked memo came from Michael Prescott, a former independent standards adviser to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee.
Prescott left his role earlier this year and has not commented on the document, understood to have been leaked by a whistleblower.
The Telegraph said Prescott alleged there were “systemic problems”, which had not been addressed by senior management, claiming there were “stark differences” between the coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza on BBC Arabic and on the main BBC website. One issue Prescott reportedly highlighted is the repeated use of commentators who were antisemitic or pro-Hamas.
As my colleague notes in this story, the 19-page dossier is also reported to have criticised the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues, saying the broadcaster had been “captured by a small group of [staff] promoting the Stonewall view” of gender identity issues and that its LGBT desk would “decline to cover any stories raising difficult questions”.
It is said to have alleged that stories raising complex questions about trans issues were suppressed, with a “constant drip-feed of one-sided stories celebrating the trans experience without adequate balance or objectivity”.
We mentioned in an earlier post that the Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch, said it was right that the BBC director general Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness had resigned as she accused the corporation of being “full of bias”.
Here is her statement, posted on social media, in full:
It’s right that Tim Davie and Deborah Turness have finally taken responsibility and resigned from the BBC.
But let’s be honest, this has been a catalogue of serious failures that runs far deeper. The Prescott report exposed institutional bias that cannot be swept away with two resignations – strong action must be taken on all the issues it raised.
The culture at the BBC has not yet changed. BBC Arabic must be brought under urgent control. The BBC’s US and Middle East coverage needs a full overhaul. And on basic matters of biology, the corporation can no longer allow its output to be shaped by a cabal of ideological activists.
The new leadership must now deliver genuine reform of the culture of the BBC, top to bottom – because it should not expect the public to keep funding it through a compulsory licence fee unless it can finally demonstrate true impartiality.
Davie’s resignation ‘a failure of governance’
The resignations of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness was “a coup”, a former newspaper editor has said.
David Yelland, who edited The Sun from 1998 to 2003, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that their departure “was a coup, and worse than that, it was an inside job”.
He said:
There were people inside the BBC, very close to the board … who have systematically undermined Tim Davie and his senior team over a period and this has been going on for a long time. What happened yesterday didn’t just happen in isolation.
“What has happened here is there was a failure of governance,” he said. “I don’t blame the chairman [Samir Shah] as an individual, but the job of the chair of any organisation, a company – including the BBC – is to keep their CEO, their top man or woman, in post or fire them.
“And that has not happened, because Tim Davie was not fired. He walked and so there was, that is the definition of a failure of governance.”
Government minister Louise Sandher-Jones has rejected suggestions the BBC was institutionally biased.
The veterans minister told Sky News:
When you look at the huge range of domestic issues, local issues, international issues, that it has to cover, I think its output is very trusted.
When I speak to people who’ve got very strongly held views on those, they’re still using the BBC for a lot of their information, it’s forming their views on this.
Asked about Donald Trump’s comments on the BBC, she said:
President Trump will obviously speak for himself. Tim Davie and Deborah Turness have been quite clear that it’s their decision that they’ve stepped down and I note that the board has thanked them for their service and had said that it had supported them.
But they’ve, as they’ve said, taken accountability for what the BBC has put out. I think it is very important that public figures have accountability.
Trump welcomes Davie’s resignation
Donald Trump welcomed the resignations of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness. He wrote on his Truth Social platform last night that the way his speech had been edited by Panorama was an attempt to “step on the scales of a presidential election”, adding: “What a terrible thing for Democracy!”
The edit suggested Trump told the crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.” The words were taken from sections of his speech almost an hour apart.
The programme was aired last year, a week before the US election.
Who is Tim Davie?
The media boss has steered the corporation through years of crisis and controversy. Read our profile here:
Reaction to the resignation of Tim Davie
Lisa Nandy, culture secretary, thanked Davie for his work and said the government would help the BBC secure “its role at the heart of national life for decades to come”. She said: “Now more than ever, the need for trusted news and high quality programming is essential to our democratic and cultural life, and our place in the world.”
Kemi Badenoch, Tory leader, claimed the BBC was full of “institutional bias,” and “the new leadership must now deliver genuine reform of the culture of the BBC, top to bottom.”
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said the corporation needs “to turn a new leaf”.
Reform leader Nigel Farage calls it the BBC’s “last chance”, saying the two resignations must be “the start of wholesale change” at the corporation.
BBC chair expected to apologise for Panorama’s Trump edit
Hello and welcome to our coverage of developments at the BBC, where the director general, Tim Davie, and its CEO of news, Deborah Turness, have resigned after accusations of bias and misleading the public in its coverage of issues including Donald Trump, Gaza and trans rights.
In an announcement that caused shock within the corporation, Davie said his departure was “entirely my decision”. Davie said his departure would not be immediate and that he was “working through” timings to ensure an “orderly transition” over the coming months.
The BBC chair, Samir Shah, is expected to apologise on Monday for the way a speech by Donald Trump to crowds at the Capitol on January 6 2021 was edited for current affairs programme Panorama after several days of pressure on the broadcaster prompted the resignation of Davie and Turness.
Turness said controversy around the Panorama edit had “reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC – an institution that I love”.
Stay with us for the latest developments throughout the day.
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