THE BBC has been accused of failing audiences after platforming “wall-to-wall Tories” as the party’s leadership contest rolls on.
The news comes after a BBC presenter acknowledged on air that one Tory MP – Ben Bradley – had been “almost ubiquitous” in their coverage of the race to replace Boris Johnson.
Bradley has courted controversy on multiple occasions, including being forced to pay former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s legal fees after falsely accusing him of “selling British secrets”, and being publicly corrected on a statement about Martin Luther King by the civil rights campaigner’s own daughter.
READ MORE: 'Useless' Matt Hancock demolished by Scots caller on live radio phone-in show
During the BBC News channel’s coverage of Kemi Badenoch’s exit from the race to replace Boris Johnson, Bradley was asked for his views.
The Tory MP for Mansfield said it would be a close race between Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt to compete against Rishi Sunak in the final two.
Journalist Nick Eardley thanked Bradley for his "interesting analysis" and invited the Tory to go back on air later.
The BBC anchor then explained why the MP had been “almost ubiquitous on this channel in the last 48 hours”.
He said Bradley had been “pretty much the public face of the Badenoch campaign”, adding: “We do ask everybody on this channel … it just happens to be that some people are being put out by the campaigns.”
SNP staffer Erik Geddes quipped on Twitter: “'Everybody'... Or did BBC News Channel anchor mean to say 'every Tory'?”
📺 "Ben Bradley has been almost ubiquitous on this channel in the last 48 hours.... We do ask everybody on this channel... "
— Erik Geddes (@erikgeddes) July 19, 2022
'Everybody'... Or did BBC News Channel anchor mean to say 'every Tory' ? pic.twitter.com/V18yRFM8QN
The BBC announced on Tuesday that it would be hosting a debate between the final two contenders to enter No 10 on Monday, July 25.
Alongside this debate, the two remaining Tory hopefuls will also be offered the chance to appear in a separate one-to-one interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson.
One SNP source told The National the broadcaster’s extensive coverage of the Tory leadership battle was “ignoring the reality in Scotland”.
They said: “The BBC is treating this contest – in which 0.2 % of the UK population picks the next Prime Minister – as a sport.
“Tory MPs swan on to the news channel and share their views like pundits without any scrutiny.
“Wall-to-wall Tories on the BBC is failing audiences and inadvertently highlights a democracy in decline.
“Tory-centric coverage is sadly typical of the BBC failing to recognise the complexities of devolution – and ignores the reality in Scotland where we haven’t voted Tory since the 1950s.”
Writing for The Sunday National, the former top Channel 4 executive Stuart Cosgrove said the media’s coverage of the Tory leadership race had taken “a wrecking ball to fairness”.
Cosgrove wrote: “The much-loved concept of impartiality, which sits at the heart of public service broadcasting, and is a byword for BBC internal discipline, has taken a monumental doing this week, exposing deep fault-lines within how our media covers elected politics.
“The Tory’s internal selection process, and the marginal characters who have made up the numbers in this race, have been given far too much airtime, and been allowed to set the political agenda by virtue of over-exposure.
“Notwithstanding the farce that permits the winner of the internal party battle to automatically become prime minister, the process itself has led almost every news bulletin for a week.”
The BBC has been approached for comment.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel