BBC journalism – still failing

A failure to report the relevant facts is not journalism, and encouraging readers to believe anything other than the truth is deception, pure and simple.

The BBC is at it again. Back in June ’23 I wrote about the loss of BBC impartiality around Gender Identity Ideology and their enthusiastic targeting of children. This time, the targets of their partiality are women, or more specifically, women’s sports.

The BBC’s charter says:

“The Mission of the BBC is to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain.”

Today’s shameless promotion of Caster Semenya as a woman is disinformation that frustrates and enrages anyone who cares about fairness in sport and knows that Semenya is not female and not a woman.

Sally Nugent – a journalist for whom I have the greatest respect – interviewed Caster Semenya (who is on a book promotion tour), and quite rightly discussed the controversy around athletes with DSDs.

The online coverage of this interview originally said: “The South African wants to hold World Athletics to account for what she says is discrimination against athletes with hyperandrogenism”

This is indeed the claim being made by Semenya, but what was not pointed out either in the BBC article or by Sally Nugent is that Caster Semenya does not have hyperandrogenism. Hyperandrogenism occurs in around 5% of women of reproductive age, most commonly in women with PCOS.

Caster Semenya is not one of these women.

From the Daily Telegraph (July 2023):

The precise medical name for Caster Semenya’s difference in sexual development, or DSD, is 5-alpha reductase deficiency. It is a condition that influences only male sexual characteristics before birth and during puberty. Those with it have one X and one Y chromosome in each cell, plus testes that may be internal due to the shortage of a hormone, dihydrotestosterone, which can disrupt the formation of external sex organs. In other words, Semenya is 46XY: genetically male.

From The Times (November 2023):

she is a biological male with a 5-alpha reductase deficiency, which causes a “difference of sexual development” (DSD) known as 46, XY. This means her external male genitals didn’t form in utero and some secondary male sexual characteristics (facial hair, Adam’s apple) did not develop at puberty. Instead Semenya builds her case for being allowed to compete in female athletics upon the fact that she was brought up as a girl, albeit a “masculine” one.

From The Guardian (June 2019):

In [the IAAF] decision it also said that 46 XY 5-ARD (5-alpha-reductase deficiency) athletes – such as Semenya – have “circulating testosterone at the level of the male 46 XY population and not at the level of the female 46 XX population. This gives 46 XY 5-ARD athletes a significant sporting advantage over 46 XX female athletes.”

Also from the Guardian (July 2022):

Semenya’s advantages came because individuals with 5-ARD “have what is commonly identified as the male chromosomal sex (XY and not XX), male gonads (testes not ovaries) and levels of circulating testosterone in the male range (7.7-29.4 nmol/L), which are significantly higher than the female range (0.06-1.68 nmol/L)”

In other words, Caster Semenya is male, and has a Difference of Sexual Development (DSD) that only affects males. The BBC’s coverage made no mention of this, but deliberately lead their readers and listeners to believe that Semenya is a female with a completely different medical condition – one that is relatively common amongst women, but which can make them very unwell.

The BBC must know this, and it is likely that mine was not the only complaint to point out their deceit because the article was quickly changed to remove all mention of hyperandrogenism. In the updated article readers are left with no idea what the medical issue is, just that Semenya is different and will “embrace my differences”.

Since other mainstream media have reported Semenya’s DSD for some years, it looks like the BBC are quite deliberately choosing to omit this vital information.

It’s increasingly obvious why so many people no longer trust BBC journalists.

This morning, Caster Semenya was on Woman's Hour. There were numerous mistakes and untruths in the interview which Emma Barnett left unchallenged as pointed out by Mara Yamauchi

The public are being lied to by the BBC despite editorial guidelines that unambiguously and repeatedly stress the importance of factual accuracy, impartiality and the requirement for evidence.

This is from their editorial guidelines:

News, Current Affairs and Factual Output

4.3.10 News in whatever form must be treated with due impartiality, giving due weight to events, opinion and main strands of argument. The approach and tone of news stories must always reflect our editorial values, including our commitment to impartiality. 

4.3.11 Presenters, reporters and correspondents are the public face and voice of the BBC – they can have a significant impact on perceptions of whether due impartiality has been achieved. Our audiences should not be able to tell from BBC output the personal opinions of our journalists or news and current affairs presenters on matters of public policy, political or industrial controversy, or on ‘controversial subjects’ in any other area. They may provide professional judgements, rooted in evidence, but may not express personal views on such matters publicly, including in any BBC-branded output or on personal blogs and social media. 

Truth and accuracy rely not just on some facts being reported, but all of the relevant facts being reported so that readers do not misunderstand the issues being discussed.

The job of a journalist is to expose those facts - all of them - by asking appropriate and probing questions about matters of public interest, and to report what they know.

And the remit of the BBC is to make sure its journalists do their damn jobs.