The BBC refused to host Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart’s podcast due to impartiality concerns, the producer has revealed.
The issue centred around the critical opinions of Boris Johnson, then prime minster, which were voiced by both hosts of The Rest Is Politics, the weekly political show produced by Goalhanger Podcasts.
The unchallenged views meant that BBC Sounds, the broadcaster’s audio streaming service, felt unable to carry The Rest Is Politics as part of a trial to feature shows from beyond the corporation. It opted instead to host about 30 episodes of Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook’s less controversial The Rest is History.
Tony Pastor, Goalhanger’s chief creative officer, said that he thought the BBC had made the right decision given its impartiality constraints. “We were approached by the BBC which had got dispensation from Ofcom to carry a number of independent podcasts on BBC Sounds and said they would like to carry The Rest Is Politics,” he said on the Sky News stage at The Podcast Show on Wednesday. “We agreed a deal and sent over an episode but they turned it down and ripped up the contract. We were told: ‘We will never put that out . . . You can’t talk about Boris Johnson like that’. Our response was ‘Yes we can!’. We can say what we like about Boris Johnson. We don’t have to be balanced. We give opinion and stand by it [but] the BBC could never carry it.”
Pastor added that he considered the BBC to be hamstrung by Ofcom rules: “I’m disappointed that the biggest political podcast in the country with six million downloads a month can’t be carried on the national broadcaster. There’s something strange going on if the most popular show in this genre cannot be broadcast on the national broadcaster.”
A BBC spokeswoman said: “We don’t recognise this account.” An insider suggested that it opted to host the history programme because it considered it a better editorial fit rather than on impartiality grounds.
The decision has emerged as Gary Lineker said that he considered the BBC’s impartiality issue to be “almost unresolvable”. The Match of the Day host, who was stood down in April for comparing the government’s language on asylum seekers to that used in 1930s Germany, told Channel 4 News that he believes he should be able to air his political views outside the BBC.
Lineker said: “There is nothing in my contract whatsoever in having an opinion on a different variety of things. It’s actually really important that people with a platform do use it for the power of good. Impartiality is really tricky at the BBC and I think it’s an issue that is almost unresolvable.”
A review of the BBC’s guidelines is being conducted by an independent expert who is expected to report his findings later this summer.
The BBC isn’t impartial, and it hasn’t been for a while.
Anything to stop the bizarre rehabilitation of Alastair Campbell that has happened over the last couple of years. Seems people are happy to ignore his role in the Iraq War because he shares their opinion that Brexit and the Tories are crap. It’s infuriating.
Yet there’s another thread on this sub saying that Question Time is having a Leavers only edition.
They are also hosting a brexiters only question time. For impartiality… When are they hosting a remainer only version?
Yet they have hosted various satirical shows that have criticised the government for going on decades now, Labour and Tory alike. It’s not like the BBC told Campbell and Stewart to criticise the government either, so it not a BBC hit piece by any stretch of the imagination.
Tv is dead. I’ve always said the internet is going to be massive
It was the right decision. The BBC has to be impartial and balanced. If TRIP had to tailor its content and presentation to fit on the BBC it would neuter the show.
Ridiculous
A Conservative politician talks to a Labour politician but we can’t have that because they’re both remainers and the BBCs idea of impartiality is to support Brexit.
Any objective view of Johnson is that he is a disastrously dishonest narcissist who has massively and unrecoverably damaged the UK’s reputation and image overseas and destroyed the UK voters trust in the institutions of government in a permanent fashion. The only biased opinion of BoJo would be positive as that is unjustifiable. When the truth is seen as “biased” then we are all in deep shit.
Rory Stewart is a Tory. Alistair Campbell is Labour.
But they’re 90s/00s middle-ground tory and Labour. Together they’re about as balanced as you’re going to get on a politics show.
The problem is that the government has pulled us all so far to the right that these two seem “lefty”.
The bbc is stacked with Tory stooges personally picked to report certain angles. The carefully selected audiences, the plants, the questioning and the easy ride given to government. The repeated breaches of purdah rules to favour the tories. The way kuensburg or Bruce leap to defend their tory guests from criticism.
We have written evidence of hancock asking his advisor to phone up the bbc and get stories buried…which they did.
The idea it’s free or non biased is laughable
Serious question though, how can a podcast with someone from both major parties be partisan? I mean, isn’t it the definition of impartial?!
But a Brexit-voters only Question Time is all fine and good is it?
I would suggest having someone speak in favour of Boris breaches impartiality, as he objectively a lazy, lying, corrupt mess with no redeeming features.
Impartiality doesn’t mean programmes are obliged to have a designated turd polisher.
15 comments
The BBC refused to host Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart’s podcast due to impartiality concerns, the producer has revealed.
The issue centred around the critical opinions of Boris Johnson, then prime minster, which were voiced by both hosts of The Rest Is Politics, the weekly political show produced by Goalhanger Podcasts.
The unchallenged views meant that BBC Sounds, the broadcaster’s audio streaming service, felt unable to carry The Rest Is Politics as part of a trial to feature shows from beyond the corporation. It opted instead to host about 30 episodes of Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook’s less controversial The Rest is History.
Tony Pastor, Goalhanger’s chief creative officer, said that he thought the BBC had made the right decision given its impartiality constraints. “We were approached by the BBC which had got dispensation from Ofcom to carry a number of independent podcasts on BBC Sounds and said they would like to carry The Rest Is Politics,” he said on the Sky News stage at The Podcast Show on Wednesday. “We agreed a deal and sent over an episode but they turned it down and ripped up the contract. We were told: ‘We will never put that out . . . You can’t talk about Boris Johnson like that’. Our response was ‘Yes we can!’. We can say what we like about Boris Johnson. We don’t have to be balanced. We give opinion and stand by it [but] the BBC could never carry it.”
Pastor added that he considered the BBC to be hamstrung by Ofcom rules: “I’m disappointed that the biggest political podcast in the country with six million downloads a month can’t be carried on the national broadcaster. There’s something strange going on if the most popular show in this genre cannot be broadcast on the national broadcaster.”
A BBC spokeswoman said: “We don’t recognise this account.” An insider suggested that it opted to host the history programme because it considered it a better editorial fit rather than on impartiality grounds.
The decision has emerged as Gary Lineker said that he considered the BBC’s impartiality issue to be “almost unresolvable”. The Match of the Day host, who was stood down in April for comparing the government’s language on asylum seekers to that used in 1930s Germany, told Channel 4 News that he believes he should be able to air his political views outside the BBC.
Lineker said: “There is nothing in my contract whatsoever in having an opinion on a different variety of things. It’s actually really important that people with a platform do use it for the power of good. Impartiality is really tricky at the BBC and I think it’s an issue that is almost unresolvable.”
A review of the BBC’s guidelines is being conducted by an independent expert who is expected to report his findings later this summer.
The BBC isn’t impartial, and it hasn’t been for a while.
Anything to stop the bizarre rehabilitation of Alastair Campbell that has happened over the last couple of years. Seems people are happy to ignore his role in the Iraq War because he shares their opinion that Brexit and the Tories are crap. It’s infuriating.
Yet there’s another thread on this sub saying that Question Time is having a Leavers only edition.
They are also hosting a brexiters only question time. For impartiality… When are they hosting a remainer only version?
Yet they have hosted various satirical shows that have criticised the government for going on decades now, Labour and Tory alike. It’s not like the BBC told Campbell and Stewart to criticise the government either, so it not a BBC hit piece by any stretch of the imagination.
Tv is dead. I’ve always said the internet is going to be massive
It was the right decision. The BBC has to be impartial and balanced. If TRIP had to tailor its content and presentation to fit on the BBC it would neuter the show.
Ridiculous
A Conservative politician talks to a Labour politician but we can’t have that because they’re both remainers and the BBCs idea of impartiality is to support Brexit.
Any objective view of Johnson is that he is a disastrously dishonest narcissist who has massively and unrecoverably damaged the UK’s reputation and image overseas and destroyed the UK voters trust in the institutions of government in a permanent fashion. The only biased opinion of BoJo would be positive as that is unjustifiable. When the truth is seen as “biased” then we are all in deep shit.
Rory Stewart is a Tory. Alistair Campbell is Labour.
But they’re 90s/00s middle-ground tory and Labour. Together they’re about as balanced as you’re going to get on a politics show.
The problem is that the government has pulled us all so far to the right that these two seem “lefty”.
The bbc is stacked with Tory stooges personally picked to report certain angles. The carefully selected audiences, the plants, the questioning and the easy ride given to government. The repeated breaches of purdah rules to favour the tories. The way kuensburg or Bruce leap to defend their tory guests from criticism.
We have written evidence of hancock asking his advisor to phone up the bbc and get stories buried…which they did.
The idea it’s free or non biased is laughable
Serious question though, how can a podcast with someone from both major parties be partisan? I mean, isn’t it the definition of impartial?!
But a Brexit-voters only Question Time is all fine and good is it?
I would suggest having someone speak in favour of Boris breaches impartiality, as he objectively a lazy, lying, corrupt mess with no redeeming features.
Impartiality doesn’t mean programmes are obliged to have a designated turd polisher.