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The BBC has criticized research accusing the UK broadcaster of peddling viewers a “steady diet of woke bias,” including news about slavery and gender diversity storylines in drama.
The BBC accused the Campaign for Common Sense, a group that advocates for freedom of expression, of “cherry-picking” examples of so-called “woke” issues from thousands of hours of output.
The Campaign for Common Sense has yet to publish its research, but the group appears to have collated examples of content that has upset relatively small numbers of viewers. The BBC said it did not “constitute analysis.”
Findings were shared with The Daily Telegraph, which reported that the Campaign for Common Sense surveyed BBC content in an attempt to expose bias over issues including race and gender.
The group said BBC News published 55 separate stories about slavery, including people reflecting on their historical links to the slave trade.
The Campaign for Common Sense pointed out how dramas had embraced issues around race, describing how an episode of Waterloo Road featured students revolting over their school’s slavery links.
The research added that gender issues were also explored in BBC dramas. This included a June episode of Casualty in which non-binary character Sah Brockner (Arin Smethurst) discussed their surgery.
As Deadline reported, the Casualty storyline received 142 complaints from disgruntled audience members.
More recently, Doctor Who received 144 complaints from people who felt the inclusion of Yasmin Finney‘s transgender character Rose was “inappropriate.”
The Campaign for Common Sense said: “This research reveals that, rather than upholding those high standards of impartiality, parts of the BBC continue to peddle a steady diet of woke bias both through the plotlines of popular dramas but also in some of its news coverage.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “Cherry-picking a handful of examples or highlighting genuine mistakes in thousands of hours of output does not constitute analysis and is not a true representation of BBC content. We are proud that our output seeks to represent all audiences and a range of stories and perspectives.
“Across the entirety of our services there will, of course, be occasions when people disagree with or want to challenge what they have watched or heard and we have well publicised routes for them to do that.”
The Campaign for Common Sense was founded by Mark Lehain who works as a special adviser to the Department for Education.
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