Bias BBC? They don’t care: Newsnight’s Evan Davis says staff ignore angry viewer emails
BBC Newsnight presenter Evan Davis claims the taxpayer-funded body ignores claims of bias on its TV shows.
Mr Davis said the corporation constantly receives numerous complaints via email
Mr Davis said the corporation constantly receives numerous complaints via email, but they fail to address them.
The 55-year-old was speaking at the Hay Festival when he admitted no one at the BBC cares about the accusatory jabs from license fee payers.
The presenter compared the BBC to the US’ New York Times, highly regarded around the world.
He said: “All the time we get those emails. And honestly, no one at the BBC takes those kinds of things into account.
“Maybe people at the very top of the BBC do, I don't know. Maybe they do. But none of the people who are making programmes do.”
His comments come as the organisation was embroiled in a row over political bias by pandering to the left-leaning parties in its election coverage.
The Conservative party even lodged a complaint alleging left-wing bias during the BBC Election Debate television programme.
The presenter compared the BBC to the US’ New York Times
They described the TV audience as the 'most Left-wing ever' after Home Secretary Amber Rudd was heckled while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was cheered in a seven-way leaders debate - which Theresa May skipped - and was watched by 3.6million people.
Dismissing the accusations, Mr Davi, who replaced veteran presenter Jeremy Paxman in 2014, said: “No one at the BBC takes those kinds of things into account.”
Party leaders explain why you should vote for them in election
No one at the BBC takes those kinds of things into account
He added it was “very rare” for these issues to be brought up.
But he added there were guidelines around fairness and representation, particularly when it came to politics.
He added there were guidelines around fairness and representation
Mr Davis continued: “There are some diktats at the BBC. They'll be on certain specific things like, 'you have to interview a Lib Dem during this part of the campaign', 'you cannot not have a Lib Dem on your programme', or 'you can't do this thing without having UKIP on' or something like that.
“That sort of diktat is imposed, where there's a sort of a fairness issue.”
And he sought to explain why the BBC does not take certain complaints too seriously.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd was heckled while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was cheered
Mr Davis said: “The BBC isn't one thing, it's a competing fiefdom of large numbers of different programmes competing with each other, sometimes cooperating with each other, more often competing with each other.
“So if one programme is trying to be convenient to the corporate interests of the BBC, another one will not be.”