A dossier of the BBC and their scandals proves this institution needs dismantling
The BBC was once bastion of British high standards and culture, but now it's riddled with ideological woke political bias. How will it survive? I don't think it should, not in its current form.
Disclosure
Whilst growing up in the 90s, I always viewed the BBC as a symbol of British soft power in the world, and the gold standard of journalism and high quality entertainment services.
So when I had the opportunity to start working with them, I was so proud to tell people where I was going and what I was doing, primarily early day AI technology projects. Despite having a very good working relationship with the employees, I always found an undertone that it was a very middle class organisation of highly educated university graduates and we should be privileged to be working with them, despite it being the BBC that needed and choose us for our technological expertise.
How we got here
Michael Prescott was a former political journalist. His role was as an external adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee (EGSC), a role he left in the summer of 2025 after 3 years.
Mr. Prescott wrote the unsolicited letter after his departure primarily due to frustration at his concerns were not being addressed by BBC management. Prescott reportedly conveyed feeling despair at the lack of action from BBC management. Another source quotes him as saying his memo came out of frustration at a lack of action taken by the BBC when issues were put to it. An independent journalist also drew parallels, stating that Prescott, like himself, found his concerns “downplayed or dismissed,” and this despair led him to write the letter to the BBC board. This letter was subsequently leaked to the press, particularly The Telegraph.
The damning letter
At the core of the 19-page, 8,000-word letter that Prescott wrote , he detailed his claims of continued failures by the BBC to uphold standards of accuracy and impartiality. The text highlights several specific instances and areas where bias is alleged to have occurred:
Doctored Footage of President Trump: The most damning allegation is that a BBC Panorama clip of a speech by President Trump was edited to falsely portray him as inciting a violent insurrection, a move the author compares to state-controlled media. Since the letter has been written it has emerged that there have been multiple occasions where speeches of Trump have been doctored.
US Politics Bias Poll Reporting: The BBC is accused of excessively pushing a single opinion poll that wrongly suggested Kamala Harris might defeat Donald Trump.
Israel & Palestine Coverage: The BBC is accused of minimising Israeli suffering and consistently portraying Israel negatively, relying on Hamas dominated agencies, and featuring BBC Arabic journalists openly biased against Israel and celebrating terrorists.
Transgender & LGBTQ Coverage: The BBC’s ‘LGBTQ desk’ is accused of censoring coverage by declining to report stories that raise ‘difficult questions’ about the transgender dogma within the organisation.
Push Notifications Bias On Immigration: The push notification service is cited as displaying a glaring lack of balance on immigration, when its been one of the issue of highest concerns for the public for many years. Out of 219 push notifications sent in September 2023, only 4 were about illegal migrants and asylum seekers. 3 of those 4 focused on the ‘poor conditions’ allegedly faced by the people involved. The system ignored the fact that the same month saw the highest number of illegal migrants on record entering Britain on a single day.
Reliance On Left Wing Sources: It is also accused of relying on a left-wing source (Trades Union Congress) to push a story about ethnic minority workers and ‘insecure jobs’ while ignoring other contributing factors.
The BBC fact-checking unit is also accused of trying to suggest car insurance companies are ‘racist’ without sufficient evidence.
This is not an isolated account of the bias of the BBC, there have been numerous previous instances where the BBC or its senior figures openly acknowledged a liberal bias;
Internal Reports: An internal report in 2007 attacked the BBC’s “liberal consensus”
Former Director-General Mark Thompson said in a 2010 interview that the BBC was guilty of “massive bias to the left”.
Former News Director Helen Bowden stated in 2013 that the BBC had a “deep liberal bias in its coverage of immigration”.
Peter Sissons’ Autobiography: The former newsreader wrote that the BBC had a “left-wing mindset in its very DNA” and a bias towards New Labour, the United Nations, the European Union, environmental groups, Islam, ethnic minorities, and women
Recent BBC history
Not only is the letter a damning inditement of his more recent findings, we must also take into account the other major scandals and bias that have plagued the BBC in recent years that include;
Jimmy Savile Scandal (2012): Exposed decades of systemic institutional sexual abuse and cover-up. The crisis cost the BBC over £5.3 million in internal inquiry and crisis management costs. George Entwistle, Director-General, resigned in November 2012 relating to the scandal.
Doctoring Elon Musk Screenshots (2023): In a Panorama broadcast, the BBC doctored a screenshot of Musk’s tweet to another user by adding “replying to BBCWorld,” falsely implying it was a direct response to their article, making it seem like Musk was amused by the subject matter child abuse and other harms, which was not the case. It was a reply to a friend of his.
Executive Severance Payments (2013): Found widespread governance failures resulting in an estimated £25 million in excessive, non-contractual severance payments (”sweeteners”) to 150 senior managers.
Pakistan Flooding Climate Change Claims (2022): The BBC reported that 33% of Pakistan’s landmass was submerged in the 2022 floods, pushing this was further examples of climate change. UN satellite data (specifically from UNOSAT), which analysed the floodwaters suggested that at the peak of the flooding, the area actually submerged was closer to 10% to 12%, rather than 33% quoted by the BBC. Whilst the floods were catastrophic and covered a massive area (comparable to the size of Austria or the UK), the “one-third” figure was hyperbole used to secure more climate reparations and aid, and that the BBC failed to fact-check this figure against available satellite imagery. It was more interested in pushing climate change ideology than fact.
Huw Edwards’ Missed Opportunities (2024): His conviction was preceded by the BBC missing critical opportunities to intervene due to significant internal procedural failings concerning a May 2023 complaint. Specifically, the complaint was not properly logged or quickly escalated to senior management, which obscured the full gravity of the situation. Although the initial allegations did not lead to a criminal charge, Edwards was arrested for separate, serious image offences in November 2023, yet he remained suspended and salaried until his medical resignation in April 2024, prompting criticism that the BBC could have terminated his employment sooner despite the complexities of his health and employment law.
Sir Cliff Richard Privacy Case (2014–2019): The BBC lost a landmark privacy case for reporting and filming a police raid on Richard’s home. The BBC was ordered to pay £210,000 in damages and was liable for £2 million in Richard’s legal costs.
Martin Bashir Forged Bank Statements: Accountability for the 1995 Princess Diana interview revealed that the internal whistleblower who exposed Martin Bashir’s deceitful tactics (forged bank statements) was summarily fired by the BBC shortly after the interview aired.
John Sweeney Investigative Journalist Fired (2019) : Investigative journalist John Sweeney ceased working for the BBC following a period that included his reporting and manipulation of witnesses to discredit such figures as Tommy Robinson whom is a controversial character but manipulating witnesses to say things that are untrue about anyone to then broadcast on national television is utterly apprehensible.
Richard Sharp, BBC Chairman Quits (2023) Failing to disclose a potential conflict of interest regarding a loan for the Prime Minister.
Dominic Frisby reveals 93% comedians are left leaning (2025) Dominic’s analysis highlights a stark imbalance of left and right leaning comedians on BBC Radio 4 in particular. Out of the 32 comedians, only 2 were from the right or having brexit leaning views. Frisby contends that this alienation of conservative and right-libertarian audiences contradicts the BBC’s mandate to represent the wider public.
SAS War Crime ‘Irresponsible’ Accusations (2022): A Panorama documentary alleged that UK Special Forces (SAS) killed at least 54 Afghans in suspicious circumstances, generating significant anger from service personnel and prompting a police investigation despite the Ministry of Defence (MoD) calling the reporting “irresponsible”.
Female BBC Staff Concerns On Pro-Trans Bias Ignored (2025) Sunday Times investigation reveals over a dozen internal BBC emails from female staff since 2020 complaining of pro-trans bias in reporting including misgendering male sex offenders as “women,” avoiding terms like “girls,” and suppressing gender critical views amid a “culture of fear.” Executives ignored concerns, upheld complaints against impartial journalists like Justin Webb, and maintained self ID in the style guide, prompting resignations and recent policy reviews.
Equal Pay and Discrimination Settlements: The BBC incurred significant, undisclosed costs to settle systemic equal pay claims (e.g., Samira Ahmed, seeking nearly £700,000 in back pay) and age/sex discrimination claims (e.g., four senior news presenters).
Even in the last few hours…
Just as we were preparing this article for release, there are even more reports emerging, it seems to just gets worse;
Newsnight Doctored Trump speech (2021) On the program was a former White House Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, who criticised the footage live on air, stating that the line about fighting “like hell” was much later in the speech and had been “spliced together.”
Rupert Lowe Misquoting (2025) During his question to the Prime Minister, Rupert Lowe asked for a referendum on the reintroduction of the death penalty for “both foreign and domestic criminals.” who have done the most abhorrent acts and the evidence is overwhelming. The BBC’s social media post on the matter incorrectly quoted Lowe as referring to “overseas and foreign criminals.” This change was highly significant because by leaving out the word “domestic“ the BBC’s quote suggested that Lowe was advocating for the death penalty to be applied only to non-British citizens, implying a different standard for foreign nationals, effectively racism. His actual statement applied the proposed punishment to both British and non-British offenders.
Andrew Gold documentary openly refused based on skin colour (2022) Andrew’s first major documentary via the BBC won festival awards, and included in their “best of 2018 list”. Following this, he brought a set of new investigative ideas to them, leveraging the five languages he learned while living in different parts of the world. He states that over five years, he spoke to about 50 different production companies that work with the BBC, and 100% of them gave him the same feedback. They told him that while they liked his ideas, the issue was his on camera presence; explicitly they said, “unfortunately because you are a white man you will have to be off camera. You will be behind the camera and we will have to find a minority”. The production companies would even joke about the absurdity of the situation, asking if he was sure he wasn’t gay or if they could “break your legs for you or something then you’re part of a minority”. He was made “very aware there was zero chance that I could be the face of” a program, despite his credentials and success. He views this as a phase where “young white people breaking through had zero chance,” as the BBC felt they “have enough white men on TV”.
Allegations against Toby Young proven false (2024) Chris Packham said on the BBC that Toby Young’s ‘Daily Sceptic’ website should be the ‘Daily Septic’ and stated is “basically put together by a bunch of professionals with close affiliations to the fossil fuel industry.” Toby Young, the founder furiously denied these claims and has never received any money from fossil fuel companies in funding or advertising revenue. Packham provided no evidence to back up his claims and the BBC subsequently removed the clip of the comment from their social media accounts and edited it out of the version available on BBC iPlayer.
Response and Underlying Cause
The resignation of Tim Davie, Director-General of the BBC, and Deborah Turness, Chief Executive of BBC News, clearly indicates this is yet another significant crisis in the corporation’s history.
Prescott attributes this persistent bias to an underlying problem: the organisation is allegedly “completely dominated by left-leaning graduates,” often from privileged backgrounds, who have moved sharply toward the “cultural left” (the ‘Great Awokening’) and are out-of-touch with the majority of the country. Unfortunately from our own experience, we have found this is true.
The resignations and accusations are met with resistance from many BBC staff and allied media and celebrity figures, who many denounce the controversy as an attack on the BBC by Trump, forgetting that the BBC are the ones at fault here. If the BBC is so loved by the British people, then encrypt it and make it subscription only. Then we will see if this is true.
At this time we are waiting with baited breath to see what happens with Donald Trumps defamation lawsuit seeking $1 billion to $5 billion in damages. If someone doesn’t stand up to the BBC political culture then this will happen again and again and again. Lives will be ruined, lies peddled and reputations trashed. How we can ever trust an institution that is controlled by government in relation to the level of the license fee and what it’s allowed to broadcast by Ofcom is beyond me.
Good luck to him.