A petition has been launched demanding BBC radio’s flagship current affairs programme should ditch its daily round-up of newspapers to avoid “bias” during the election campaign.
Film director and Jeremy Corbyn supporter Ken Loach is one of almost 2,000 people who have backed the campaign for the change to the Radio 4 Today programme.
It comes after a shadow minister clashed with presenter Nick Robinson over a Sun front page which featured the headline ‘Crash, Bang, Wallies!’ alongside pictures of Labour leader Mr Corbyn and union boss Len McCluskey.
Shadow International Trade minister Barry Gardiner said quoting the report in a paper round-up was “beneath” the show, adding: “People expect a standard and quality of debate that is higher than 'crash, bang, wallop'."
During the on-air clash last week, Mr Robinson said listeners “expect us to read out newspaper headlines which we have done for many, many years without backing them, endorsing them or criticising them.”
But a petition is now demanding the BBC reforms its approach.
“The notion that broadcasters can include regular segments reviewing the national press in a way that is free of bias and distortion is simply illogical, given the dominance of right-wing titles supporting the Conservative Party's re-election,” the petition says.
“It is time the BBC recognised that the UK has a highly concentrated and partisan national press that does not reflect the breadth of political opinion held by the British public and should not be given a recurring and unchallenged mouthpiece, especially during a controversial snap election period.”
A BBC source insisted that listeners “expect our news programmes to discuss and review the news”.
The source added: “Reading out a review of all newspaper headlines is not bias.”
