The BBC’s Brexit coverage is a disgrace

Lord Patten, rejected by voters 27 years ago, is the embodiment of a smug un-elected elite. As former chairman of the BBC Trust, he appointed not one but two director–generals of utter mediocrity. Now he criticises the Corporation for its ‘craven judgment about what constituted balance in its news coverage’ in the run-up to the referendum. He’s partially right. For the first time in memory, the Eurosceptic–hating BBC astonishingly gave equal air-time to both sides of the argument, which may have been a small factor in the result. How pathetic that their former chairman should attack them for this, but then the Corporation (is its Europe editor Katya Adler actually employed by Brussels?) now daily pumps out hysterical anti-Brexit propaganda, determined to make up for its short-lived neutrality. Its coverage is a disgrace. As is the insane political correctness behind the censuring of ‘racist’ Trump comments by Naga Munchetty, the admirable woman presenter of colour whom political correctness was meant to protect.

This is an extract from Paul Dacre's Notebook, which appears in this week's Spectator