During the referendum campaign there was plenty of evidence of the BBC’s support for the Remain campaign. But since the referendum result it has got much worse. All constraint has been abandoned. The Corporation has given up even trying. Boris Johnson has written about “a kind of hysteria, a contagious mourning of the kind that I remember in 1997 after the death of the Princess of Wales”.
The BBC has been leading the “gloomadon-poppers” wallowing in despair and denial at the result. For BBC journalists (who tend not to believe in good) there are certain beliefs that take on a substitute for religion – EU membership is top of the list.
17,410,742 people voted to leave the European Union. This was, as the Tory MEP Dan Hannan put it “more people than have voted for anything else ever” in the UK.
A gentle reminder, Remain friends, that more people voted to leave the EU than have voted for anything else, ever. pic.twitter.com/wS230J5j9q
— Daniel Hannan (@DanielJHannan) July 2, 2016
Their voices of celebration have not been heard much on the air waves. There were also 16,141,241 people who vote to Remain.
Overwhelmingly they have accepted the result; often they voted remain with some reservations, having a lack of enthusiasm for the EU. Again these calm, democratic remain voters have been given an almost non-existent profile.
Instead the hunt has been on for bad news and for angry, embittered Remainers. There was much uncritical coverage for a “March for Europe” on Saturday. This was really a “March against Democracy”.
30,000 were estimated to have taken part – 0.1 per cent of those who voted in the referendum. How many of the 30,000 were BBC staff interviewing each other? Not so much a demo as a therapy session.
The tiny number of bigots who responded to the referendum result by spraying racist graffiti must be delighted at the huge attention their unpleasant work has been granted by the media.
Five minutes spent by an idiot with a spraycan putting an obscene message on the Polish Centre in Hammersmith made the national news. Would it have done a year ago? Victoria Derbyshire’s TV show on BBC1 has been especially keen to link racist incidents with those who voted Leave.
While the EU referendum result was presented as a victory for Little Englander xenophobia, news that didn’t fit the narrative was ignored. Such as the eagerness of Australia, Canada, South Korea, India and Mexico to grab the opportunity for free trade deals with the UK.
Anna Soubry, the Business Minister, was given plenty of airtime, sobbing about the result. Less attention was paid to her boss Sajid Javid who, although he voted remain, concluded that “a fresh start gives a unique opportunity to shape a bright future for the UK as a global trading nation.”
'We made a terrible mistake': Tory minister Anna Soubry is close to tears as she addresses an anti-Brexit rallyhttps://t.co/G0wQ8g9eaj
— ITV News (@itvnews) June 28, 2016
The tone on BBC Radio 4 has been especially glum. It has been as if they are reporting a plane crash or earthquake. Broadcasting House on Sunday morning had Shirley Williams saying it was all a disaster “balanced” by Edwina Currie saying much the same. When it comes to the Today programme, nobody could have been left in much doubt about how Nick Robinson voted.
Mark Mardell on The World at One was keen to allow Tony Blair to propose a second referendum. Of course during the referendum Blair was among those warning of how irrevocable the vote would be.
On the Radio 2 the Jeremy Vine Show was keen to find out about Leave voters who wished they had voted Remain – but oddly less interested in Remain voters who wished they had voted Leave.
The day after the referendum, huge coverage was devoted to the fall in share prices. Rather less prominence was given when the FTSE 100 not only recovered but is now trading higher than at any point since last August.
That awkward moment when Remain has to shift off "FTSE 100 earns in dollars" spin #Brexit #Nonmageddon pic.twitter.com/hyNCDSvDPh
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) July 3, 2016
When it is reported, the caveat is added that such fluctuations should be treated with caution as a measure of the real economy. Indeed. But that observation was notably lacking from the BBC reports that the FTSE was falling through the floor.
Newsnight, which has become a TV version of The Guardian, used its first programme after the referendum result to feature Evan Davis frantically seeking to prove to viewers of the impending economic and social calamity. Kirsty Wark explained to viewers that the Scots had voted to remain as they don’t have the English hostility to immigration.
It’s not just the BBC of course. Jon Snow, the presenter of Channel 4 News, has been busy tweeting appeals “to get your MP to vote Brexit down.” Another tweet proposed a second referendum “to pull back from the brink”. Then he reported young people “in tears” saying to him: “What have these old people who voted LEAVE done to our lives?”
The bakery this morning, two 6th formers earning extra cash; In tears to me: "What have these old people who voted LEAVE done to our lives?"
— Jon Snow (@jonsnowC4) June 25, 2016
Robert Peston of ITV said he found it “deeply depressing how few people grasp that value of the FTSE100 is mechanistically inflated by the collapsing pound.”
I find it deeply depressing how few people grasp that value of FTSE100 is mechanistically inflated by collapsing £ https://t.co/54SxmzLVhO
— Robert Peston (@Peston) July 2, 2016
He also complained that “for Gove and Boris Johnson, unaccountable Brussels and corporate elite bad; unaccountable UK media elite good.”
After a General Election, the political parties that do badly usually go through a period of self-criticism. With the referendum result the clear message from the Remain campaign is that the electorate are to blame and really should buck their ideas up.
A kind view would be to say that such an outpouring is inevitable and that the media class should be given time to grieve in their own way. I disagree. They should do it in their own time – and not be flouting professional standards to emote across the airwaves. The BBC should accept the referendum result and get on with providing calm and balanced coverage of the implications of this historic decision.
