THE BBC and BREXIT Analysis of the Today Programme’s coverage of the Triggering of Article 50 29 March – 4 April 2017 Contents SUMMARY: ............................................................................................................................................................. 3 SECTION ONE – MONITORING STATISTICS ............................................................................................................ 5 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.2 News-watch and the Today Programme ...................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Nick Robinson’s Radio Times Article ............................................................................................................. 7 1.4 Monitoring Overview .................................................................................................................................. 11 1.5 Airtime ........................................................................................................................................................ 11 1.6 Guest Speakers ........................................................................................................................................... 13 1.7 Interviews and Soundbite Contributions/Wordcount Analysis .................................................................. 15 1.8 Brexit-Supporters in Detail ......................................................................................................................... 15 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................ 16 SECTION TWO – CONTENT ANALYSIS .................................................................................................................. 18 Fundamental Imbalance: .................................................................................................................................. 18 Contrast: ........................................................................................................................................................... 23 SECTION THREE – ANALYSIS................................................................................................................................. 26 Pro-Brexit Contributions ................................................................................................................................... 26 Anti-Brexit contributors .................................................................................................................................... 30 BBC Contributions ............................................................................................................................................. 34 Breakdown and analysis of BBC contributions: ................................................................................................ 58 SECTION FOUR – RUNNING LOG ......................................................................................................... 85 - 123 2 SUMMARY: In the week of the filing of the UK’s Article 50 letter (March 29 – April 4, 2017), BBC Radio 4’s Today programme broadcast six editions which contained almost five hours of material about the letter and its aftermath. This was almost half of the available feature airtime. The programme coverage was strongly biased against Brexit and made special efforts to illustrate the extent to which leaving the EU could have catastrophic consequences for the UK. There was, by contrast, only minimal effort to examine the potential benefits. A measure of this overwhelming negativity was that only eight (6.5%) of the 124 speakers who appeared over the six editions were given the space to make substantive arguments that the future for the UK outside the EU would yield significant benefits. The overall gloom was buttressed by the programme’s editorial approach. Presenters and correspondents, for example, pushed at every opportunity to illustrate potential (and existing) problems. At the same time, they were strongly adversarial towards Brexit supporters, but much less so to guests who advocated that the UK was, in effect, now staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. Problems that were deliberately pushed to the forefront included the wealth of City of London being under threat, the creation of a ‘legislative soup’, the EU not agreeing with the UK’s preferred path of negotiations, and the possibility the of exit talks extending up to 10 years. BBC ‘fact-checking’, though presented as objective, was anything but. Chris Morris, the ‘fact checker’ was most focused on choosing topics that showed Brexit in a negative light, and failed at even the elementary level of pointing out that ‘EU money’ was actually provided UK taxpayers. A series of reports from Sunderland, purportedly to explore both Leave and Remain perspectives, focused most on this negative fact checking. It also gave most prominence in its framework to the possibility of Nissan leaving the area and negative business developments since Brexit and the possibility of arts funding drying up. Local voices supporting Brexit were included, but in vox pops with only soundbite points. Special effort was made throughout to show that the City of London was under pressure as a result of Brexit. A story that Lloyd’s of London were establishing a Brussels ‘headquarters’ was elevated to major significance in the bulletins, and across several mentions in Business News slots, even though the chief executive admitted that ‘only ‘tens’ of jobs were involved. 3 By contrast to this blanket negativity, a News-watch report from 2002 covering the introduction of euro notes and coins across the EU was strongly positive about the prospects for the new currency and strained editorial sinews and resources to show that its advent had been joyfully received in the relevant EU countries. The BBC strongly defended its post-Brexit coverage during the survey period (through a high profile article in Radio Times by Today presenter Nick Robinson) as being in accord with its own rules of ‘due impartiality’. The evidence of this survey is that its assessment methods are seriously skewed against Brexit and in favour of the EU. 4 SECTION ONE – MONITORING STATISTICS 1.1 Background In the referendum of June 23 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union by a majority of 52% to 48%. The formal process for Britain’s withdrawal is outlined in Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which specifies that any member state wishing to leave the EU must notify the European Council of its intention, and states that an agreement will be negotiated within a two-year period. On March 28 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May formally signed a letter invoking Article 50, and Sir Tim Barrow, Britain’s ambassador to the EU, delivered this to European Council President, Donald Tusk at lunchtime March 29. On April 18, during the compiling of this report, the fall-out from the Leave vote took an unexpected turn when Prime Minister Theresa May announced the UK’s first snap election since 1974. Her justification was to win a mandate to deal with Brexit. Calling for ‘a deep and special partnership between a strong and successful European Union and a United Kingdom that is free to chart its own way in the world’, she said that ‘at this moment of enormous national significance there should be unity here in Westminster, but instead there is division. The country is coming together, but Westminster is not.’1 1.2 News-watch and the Today Programme Between 1999 and the referendum in 2016, News-watch tracked and analysed on an academic basis more than 7,000 hours of BBC news and current affairs programming. This involved thousands of pages of programme logs and more than 9,000 full transcripts of EU-related items containing 4.5 million words. During the referendum campaign itself, new technologies allowed the recording and retrieval of every BBC radio and television programme, and a range of individual programmes and strands were analysed in detail, in both formal reports and for a daily referendum blog on the News- watch website.2 Overall over the 18 years, this adds up to the largest sustained monitoring of the BBC ever undertaken. 1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39630009 2 http://news-watch.co.uk/?s=referendum 5 The Today programme has been a cornerstone of News-watch’s investigations since 1999. This is because it is BBC Radio 4’s self-declared flagship news and current affairs programme, broadcasting for three hours each weekday morning, and for two hours each Saturday. In February 2017, Bob Shennan, Director of BBC Radio and Music, announcing record listening figures of 7.45 million per week, said 3: In an era of fake news, echo chambers and significant shifts in global politics, the role of Radio 4’s Today as the trusted guide to the world around us is more important than ever. As Today celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, Radio 4 listeners continue to wake up to world-class journalism which scrutinises the headlines, holds those in power to account and enlightens them with stories that shape our society. News-watch has a unique and deep understanding of Today. In the 13 years leading up to the referendum, monitoring of the programme has encompassed 309 full weeks (5,253 hours) , including consecutive editions of the programme for 45 weeks