Can you imagine the BBC news in England completely ignoring the FA Cup final? Nah, neither can I. But in a display of just how much certain people at BBC Scotland are hurting with the recent Rangers triumphs, Reporting Scotland on Monday completely ignored Rangers 33rd Scottish Cup win during their bulletin.
The broadcaster has had to deal with suggestions of bias for years. In recent times the corporation has been accused of anti-American bias, London-centric reporting, a lack of impartiality when reporting on climate change and unrepresentative focus on Scottish and Welsh politics. Why did these items in particular receive publicity? Simply because enough people cared to get them into the public focus. It’s a lesson for us all: if you sit around and do nothing, don’t be surprised when nothing happens.
The BBC is very different from Sky, ITV and the other commercial broadcasters. The structure and unique funding means the corporation is legally bound by guidelines that detail impartiality, amongst other things, and it’s because of this that shoddy standards and bias in reporting do not have to be accepted by us, the licence fee payers.
The corporation as a whole I have always argued is very important. The guidelines of the BBC, certainly in theory, save us from a British Fox News, and the quality of programmes is often far better than that of its rivals. If ITV hosted Question Time we would have Ant & Dec in the chair and a phone vote to see which celebrity should be the next Prime Minister. The corporation’s output isn’t always spot on but when it gets things right the difference is night and day.
BBC Scotland, however, is a different matter altogether.
A number of years ago a story broke on FollowFollow showing Celtic players singing pro-IRA songs at a function attended by club officials and the then Chairman, Brian Quinn. It took a couple of days before any ‘paper picked this up, the bold rag being the Aberdeen Press and Journal, and tabloids hesitantly followed. However, despite this being something you would expect to be big news in a bigotry-obsessed hole, the BBC never showed the footage and never mentioned the story. Their excuse being that a ‘grainy, mobile phone video clip’ couldn’t be used as the basis for a story. This poor excuse was highlighted as lies and mere institutional bias when Reporting Scotland chiefs were only too happy to show footage of Rangers fans singing add-ons to a song after a European tie. Their evidence: a grainy, mobile phone video. If for some reason you’re not convinced, cast your mind back to how Donald Findlay was treated by the media, including the BBC, back in 1999.
Impartiality is often a very sensitive manner and stories and situations can be interpreted differently by individuals. However, I simply don’t see players of other clubs being referred to as a “cunt” on a BBC sports article webpage and I’ve never seen bouncing-ball, karaoke style lyrics on the national news highlighting songs sung by supporters of any other club. As anyone that has ever attended a football game in their life will know, unsavoury chants and songs can be found at any ground if you’re trying hard enough to be offended. So why is there clear desperation from BBC Scotland to create stories about Rangers fans?
There are two aspects of this that Rangers supporters should take note of. Firstly, the BBC must represent quality and impartiality in all broadcasting. The latter we’ll get to in a minute but for quality, just bear in mind that Billy Dodds, Chick Young and Jim Traynor represent BBC Sport Scotland’s idea of quality. Secondly, unlike commercial broadcasters, the BBC is funded by YOU, and is legally directly answerable to you as a licence fee payer.
Renewed in 2006, the Royal Charter and the Royal Charter Agreement are the documents that set out the aims of the BBC in order that it be funded by the licence fee. The BBC’s Agreement to the Royal Charter states that:
“The content of the BBC’s UK Public Services must be high quality, challenging, original, innovative and engaging, with every programme or item of content exhibiting at least one of those characteristics.”
Giving excessive airtime to sub-literates spewing lies and filth on Saturday evenings represents none of the above as far as I can see. And Chick Young? Well it’s certainly challenging to work out why he’s worthy of a job as a sports journalist. But high quality, original, innovative and engaging he certainly isn’t.
The BBC Trust’s report on impartiality published on 18 June 2007, “From Seesaw to Wagon Wheel: Safeguarding Impartiality in the 21st Century”, opened with the paragraph:
“Impartiality has always been (together with independence) the BBC’s defining quality. It is not by chance that all BBC staff carry an identity card which proclaims as the first of the BBC’s values that they are independent, impartial and honest.”
And it continues:
“Impartiality for the BBC is not in question. It is a given – a legal requirement, just as it is for other broadcasters in Britain. It is practised day in, day out, by BBC journalists, who have an impartiality gene implanted in their earliest days at the Corporation.”
In the “twelve guiding principles [of impartiality]”, the report states:
“Impartiality is an essential part of the BBC’s contract with its audience, which owns and funds the BBC. Because of that, the audience itself will sometimes be a factor in determining impartiality.”
Along with:
“Impartiality is required of everyone involved in output. It applies as much to the most junior researcher as it does to the Director-General.”
In short, there is no excuse for the sub-standard sports reporting that BBC Scotland are currently getting away with. Those on Pacific Quay can and must be held accountable for anything from “Nell ‘huncunt1’ McAndrew” on their website to an on-going, one-sided non debate on sectarianism in football.
For Rangers fans that want to highlight problems with specific content, the BBC and the BBC Trust have a set procedure for complaints. Firstly, keep in mind that ‘email campaigns’ are all-but ignored. If you have a problem then it’s best to contact them yourself, of your own accord, and have the desire to take it all the way, if necessary.
You can contact the BBC through the relevant section of their website or by post, all details are at the following:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints
You should expect a reply within 10 days. If this response isn’t satisfactory, simply reply again (through the website, if your initial complaint was submitted there), explain why you’re not happy and request a further response. If the second response isn’t satisfactory, the BBC must explain how you can take the complaint further.
If you are sending an email or a letter, keep it polite, concise and to-the-point, focus on the legal guidelines the BBC are bound by and request a response. Don’t get drawn off the subject and don’t resort to anything petty.
Although complaints about the BBC can be sent to Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, nothing regarding impartiality or inaccuracy will be heard. If by the second reply you are still not satisfied, your complaint can then and only then be taken to the BBC Trust.
For non-specific matters of quality, impartiality and inaccuracy in sports reporting, you may want to contact people at the top. They may well be oblivious to the concerns of Rangers supporters but it should be a matter they pay attention to when it is pointed out that corporation is in danger of alienating arguably the biggest collective of people in Scotland.
The Director General of the BBC is Mark Thompson
Mark.Thompson@bbc.co.uk
Mark Thompson
Director-General
BBC
Media Centre
201 Wood Lane
London
W12 7TQ
North of the border, the Controller of BBC Scotland is Ken MacQuarrie Ken.Macquarrie@bbc.co.uk
Ken MacQuarrie
Controller, BBC Scotland
40 Pacific Quay
Glasgow
G51 1DA
If you aren’t happy with the BBC’s on-going lack of impartiality in its sports reporting; completely ignoring the Scottish Cup final victory in the Monday bulletin or spending your money to send reporters abroad to attend Celtic-minded bigot fests (and then lying about the reporting of these) then you have the chance to change things.
If you sit on your hands and do nothing, nothing will change. It takes a small effort from everyone to make things happen.
REFERENCES
(i) a. BBC Royal Charter – September 2006
http://tinyurl.com/owoul9
(i) b. BBC Agreement to the Royal Charter – July 2006
http://tinyurl.com/29rgm4
(ii) “From Seesaw to Wagon Wheel: Safeguarding Impartiality in the 21st Century” – June 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/18_06_07impartialitybbc.pdf