Former BBC journalist Robin Aitken has called the corporation a “state broadcaster” that “instinctively aligns itself with progressive thought”.
Aitken spent 25 years at the BBC as a journalist, starting on local radio and working his way up to the Today programme.
In conversation with Tony Rucinski, CEO of the Coalition for Marriage, Aitken said that the idea of impartiality at the BBC is “a complete and utter fiction”.
He referred to the recent revelation by The Telegraph that dozens of civil servants had worked in the BBC newsroom since 2018.
“BBC people are always cross if you allege that the BBC is a state broadcaster and yet here we have the BBC allowing, with government connivance, putting civil servants on secondment into BBC newsrooms," he said.
Aitken added that the BBC had a tendency to use its prime time news bulletins to “reflect what the government wants to do”. He pointed in particular to the BBC’s actions during Covid, during which the BBC “handed its news bulletins over to the government so they could get their message across”.
Despite this, Aitken feels that change could well be coming with more and more young people choosing not to purchase a TV licence as they can manage without BBC services.
The discussion moved on to the BBC’s coverage of trans issues, with Rucinski noting that the BBC’s style guide states “the concept of a gender identity is contested” and yet in practice the BBC does not question trans ideology at all and affirms the gender identity of trans individuals in its reporting.
Aitken noted, “The BBC sees itself as part of the progressive alliance in politics … [it] unthinkingly aligns itself with progressive causes.”
He added that there is “a cabal of journalists within BBC newsrooms who effectively had a veto on stories touching on the trans issue”.
As well as declining TV licence revenue, the government is due to make a decision on the next BBC charter in 2027.
Rucinski argued it was a good opportunity for supporters to write to their MP, and urge that the BBC end its mostly negative coverage of the institution of marriage, particularly in content aimed at children.
