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This week, the BBC has come under fire for platforming far-right figures and for its workplace culture, while an award-winning filmmaker has criticised Screen Scotland’s “ignorance and discrimination” against grassroots projects.
BBC must understand ‘powerful legitimising function’
In last week’s newsletter, you’ll have read about the anti-Islam figure and Spectator associate Douglas Murray being given an eight-minute interview on Newsnight, to which ex-BBC presenter Matthew Stadlen suggested the Overton window had shifted “so significantly” that major broadcasters are being left with little choice but to platform these types of voices.
He said he didn’t want to criticise the BBC directly for the interview, but ex-BBC journalist Karishma Patel said the airtime Murray was given was “incredibly significant” and the BBC needs to better understand its “powerful legitimising function”.
“Fringe far-right views have gained a lot of purchase in society so it’s important the BBC takes an evidence-based approach and tackles some of these views and drills into where they are coming from,” she told the Sunday National.
“The legitimising function of having a white man like Douglas Murray in a nice suit sat there giving an eight-minute interview that was actually quite pleasant, is very powerful.”
Dr Aurelian Mondon (below), an expert in the mainstreaming of the far right at the University of Bath, also described the interview with Murray as "appalling".
“There is this defeatist attitude I find quite common and I think shines through in what Matthew Stadlen said, that’s like ‘well, what can we do?’,” he said.
“You can do some things. You are part of the elite and the people who have privileged access to shape public discourse.”
While mainstream platforms like the BBC do have to grapple with a changing political landscape where views like Murray’s have become more palatable, Mondon said he still has “no sympathy” with the choices being made.
“You don’t need Douglas Murray on a platform telling us why his ideas are not dangerous. We could have two people discussing why his ideas are dangerous because there is a massive consensus they are,” he said.
The BBC said it is important to “interview and interrogate a wide range of views” and insisted Murray was challenged during the interview.
'Powerful' BBC staff behave 'unacceptably'
Elsewhere, a report into workplace culture at the BBC published on Monday has said some employees in positions of power are able to behave “unacceptably” without consequence.
The corporation was told it needs to take faster action when staff step out of line by Change Associates, which produced a report on the back of the Huw Edwards scandal.
The former presenter was found to have accessed indecent images of children as young as seven. He was handed six months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years.
The report found there was not a “toxic culture” at the corporation but highlighted some staff “often in positions of power” who behave “unacceptably” and “whose behaviour is not addressed”.
The report highlighted that these staff work on and off-air in different roles and departments, and their “behaviour creates large ripples which negatively impact the BBC’s culture and external reputation”.
It added that while the BBC states it has zero tolerance for unacceptable behaviour, the “words do not align with the actual experience” of some people working with or for the corporation.
The report has said the BBC needs to set “clear expectations” around behaviours and ensure unacceptable behaviour has “appropriate consequences”.
Scottish director warns grassroots film losing out to Hollywood
Award-winning Scottish filmmaker Ryan Hendrick has voiced his concerns about “ignorance and discrimination” against grassroots projects in Scotland.
He wrote about his concerns around the film industry in Scotland being geared towards attracting Hollywood projects in a letter to Culture Secretary Angus Robertson.
He said the reluctance to support homegrown projects with commercial value is “baffling”, as he took aim at Screen Scotland – a national body set up to support Scotland’s film and TV industry – as being “indifferent” to the problem.
“History has shown us time and time again that Hollywood coming to Scotland is no more than a band-aid.
“You only have to look at the continuing wave of unemployment in the Scottish film and television industry following the last Hollywood boom that came in the form of the doomed Batgirl project.”
Hendrick said that the priority should be to support workers in the industry and that Screen Scotland should insist that a minimum of 50% of the crew working on any productions are based in Scotland.
The Scottish Government said the Culture Secretary would respond to Hendrick in due course.
