BBC bias? Such accusations pre-date the BBC itself...

...plus 2025's Thought for the Day + 1923's first BBC political debate (and its last for 25 years)

This week, the BBC’s spat with politics entered its 37,451st day. That’s an accurate count, by the way.

Before we get to day 1, let’s look at what happened on day 37,451…

“Tell people what they do not want to hear”

Krish Kandiah and Robert Jenrick - at Broadcasting House at different times on different days. Orwell statue around the corner.

With approved script in hand, Dr Krish Kandiah (director of refugee charity the Sanctuary Foundation, and - full disclosure - friend of mine) entered Radio 4’s Today studio for last Wednesday’s Thought for the Day.

Krish is a regular. And you know what you’ll get: he’s spent his life fostering, adopting and welcoming others, and he’s not afraid to talk about. On this occasion he inadvertently prodded the embers an old BBC fire, that for over a century has glowed red… or blue... or a bit of both.

You can’t spell Thought for the Day with ‘Tory’, and in this case that Tory is Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick. (‘Shadow Justice’ - sounds like a crime novel waiting to be written…)

Not a real book… yet.

Enough silly book covers. To the serious stuff. Kandiah quoted Jenrick:

“I certainly don’t want my children to share a neighbourhood with men from backward countries who broke into Britain illegally and about whom we know next to nothing.” - Robert Jenrick

Bluntly put. On R4’s Today, Kandiah referenced this just as bluntly:

“These words echo a fear many have absorbed. Fear of the stranger. The technical name for this is xenophobia.” - Krish Kandiah

‘Xenophobia’ is of course one of those magic words - that can transform into another word if the affronted party chooses, as Jenrick did:

“On BBC Radio 4 this morning, listeners were told that if you’re concerned about the threat of illegal migrants to your kids, you’re racist.” - Robert Jenrick

J’ll briefly point out that Kandiah didn’t call Jenrick a racist. Either way, the BBC removed part of the offending item and apologised:

"While its reflection on fear in society from a faith perspective is broadly in line with expectations of Thought for the Day, some of the language it used went beyond that and we apologise for its inclusion." - BBC statement

Although BBC Sounds now has an edited version, the intact original remains on Kandiah’s social media feed, for the curious listener.

We can argue about the rights and wrongs, and whether we need balance and how much balance, and do we need a balance between balanced and unbalanced voices… but I’ll just note that we’ve been here before... before the BBC even began.

The First Accusation of BBC Bias

The first accusation of BBC bias pre-dates the BBC itself.

At 5:20pm on 31 October 1922 - 14 days before the BBC’s first broadcast - Marconi engineers testing the pre-launch signal were heard on air apparently promoting the Municipal Reform Party. No relation to today’s Reform, this was a right-leaning London party linked to the Tories.

It was a bit of an accident. With no easy way to privately test the line, the engineers were tasked with reading aloud anything they could find. Previous tests had included days of the week, months of the year, as well as some popular railway timetables.

On this occasion, they read from a newspaper - which included a political ad ahead of the election. Whoops. As for the next day’s newspaper…

Daily Herald, 1 November 1922

“After all the assurances that wireless would not be tinged with political bias, amateur ‘listeners-in’ were amazed last night to receive radio advice on how to vote in the municipal elections!” - The Daily Herald

When challenged by the Herald journalist, the Marconi rep at first “denied emphatically that transmissions were used for political purposes”, adding that “as a matter of fact there have been no transmissions for a fortnight”. There were no recordings, so it was impossible to prove. But when the journo quoted some of the engineer’s overheard lingo, the Marconi spokesman realised and fessed up.

“Oh! There are tests going on. They are calling Chelmsford and testing speech!” - Marconi representative, 1 November 1922

He said the engineer would say anything that came into his head, which might “even be about the feathers in a lady’s hat!”

“If the public is to accept the assurance that transmitting will not be used for political purposes, it is indeed unfortunate that ‘news’ with a political bias may be ‘broadcast’… The Daily Herald has drawn attention to the possibilities of propaganda against the workers by means of ‘broadcasting’… after the incidents recorded above, it seems that there was at least some justification.“ - The Daily Herald, 1 November 1922

For the full newspaper article, see this old post on The British Broadcasting Facebook group - and thanks Andrew Barker for posting it.

The first political debate - a Red Flag

Three months later, the BBC had found its feet - and a way to begin Outside Broadcasts. It also found a Chief Engineer, who recalled later how this moment made him realise the sheer power of this new medium.

22 February 1923 at Kingsway Hall was the scene of the BBC’s first political debate - and its last for a quarter of a century. It didn’t go to plan.

Previous OBs had mostly been opera, since perfecting the method on 8 January, with The Magic Flute live from the Royal Opera House. The Beeb had caught the bug, and wanted to broadcast from other London theatres and halls. Kingsway Hall had a head-to-head political showdown lined up: Sir Ernest Benn (uncle of Tony) proposing ‘That Communism would be a Danger to the Good of the People’ - opposed by J.T. Walton Newbold, Britain’s first communist MP.

Sir Ernest Benn MP and J.T. Walton Newbold MP

Newbold only lasted in Parliament one year, but in that time brought communism to the airwaves in one momentous broadcast… thanks to a few hundred chums who turned up.

Nowadays Question Time is scrupulous in ensuring a balanced audience. Back then, no one had thought of that. So Kingsway Hall was packed to the rafters with communist supporters. They heckled, jeered, and ended the broadcast with a song - their anthem, the Red Flag.

Peter Eckersley, BBC Chief Engineer, later recalled his penny-drop moment on realising broadcasting’s power and influence in such a surprising and musical way:

The BBC didn’t record anything till the 1930s - but the next day’s newspapers had a field day reporting on the chaotic broadcast.

We told this tale in full on the British Broadcasting Century Podcast episode 62, which also featured Reeta Chakrabarti as our guest. Thanks to those newspaper articles (and a few sound effects of jeers), we recreated this ill-fated debate.

This weekend, I helped run a writers’ workshop in Manchester on ‘Dramatising Lost Broadcasts’, thanks to an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) initiative. One broadcast we talked about was this one.

So based on those newspaper reports, here’s my attempt to bring to life that century-old debate in script form. Read along with friends, and you too could recreate this early example of accidental bias:

I have neither space nor inclination to list every BBC (or other broadcasters’) slip-up or accusation, whether founded or un-. Just to say if you count the days from first accusation of bias (although that first one was for being too right-wing…) to last Wednesday’s Thought for the Day, that’s 37,451 days… with many an incident - and many more yet to come.

Because live is live, and I wonder if we should confine voices or overly censor, in a grown-up media landscape that seeks to inform, educate and entertain. Of course where that line is is subject of debate. Yes, more debate. Debate about debate. It fuels itself.

Kandiah v Jenrick… or Kandiah X Jenrick?

As for this week, Kandiah wants to double that Roman numeral from V to X - less Kandiah v Jenrick, more Kandiah X Jenrick.

That’s my rather clunky way of saying that he’s extended an olive branch and asked to work with, not against, the Conservative MP, in the spirit of Krish’s original TFTD which concluded:

"Echo what Jesus taught, to love thy neighbour and to welcome the stranger. Just as fear may be learned, I believe it is possible for us to learn to hope. By choosing empathy over suspicion, by listening before judging and by building bridges instead of walls." - Krish Kandiah

Some have called Jenrick a ‘snowflake’ for his reaction. I just think he’s an opportunist.

I don’t think he’s offended at all - he just sees, like countless politicians before him, that the national broadcaster gives him that opportunity, and will again. Jenrick will use that platform to get across his message, just as Kandiah will use it for his. Just as I use it for mine when I’m asked on Radio 2’s Pause for Thought - though I mostly avoid politics and talk about Elton John songs etc. Well it is Radio 2…

Both men would have passed the George Orwell statue (as mentioned in this previous Substack post on BH’s statues) on their frequent trips to BH. Its inscription:

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” - George Orwell

Tomorrow, countless more hours will be broadcast, on radio and television, BBC and commercial. I wonder what debates and disagreements we’ll get into next? Whatever they are, I’m sure we’re grown-up enough to handle a few differences of opinion, and use this broadcasting platform as an amplified debating chamber.

What’s the worst that could happen? If the waters look too choppy, I’m sure someone will put up a red flag.

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Thanks for reading.

I present The British Broadcasting Century Podcast (and occasionally Radio 2 Pause for Thoughts - that aren’t very political)

I tour An Evening of (Very) Old Radio.

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