20 WORST Things the BBC Has Ever Done

<h4>20 WORST Things the BBC Has Ever Done</h4>

Welcome to WatchMojoUK, and today we’re looking at the biggest scandals of the BBC’s own making.

<h4>#20: ADHD</h4>

You may not expect “Panorama” to be so controversial, but its investigations aren’t always up to snuff. A prime example was this documentary about private ADHD diagnoses released in 2023, in which a journalist tried to see how easy it was to pay to get a diagnosis and then get a prescription. The documentary concluded that it was too easy, but viewers with ADHD were horrified. Many pointed out not only that ADHD is underdiagnosed, particularly in women and girls, but that people wouldn’t need to turn to private clinics at all if the NHS didn’t leave tens of thousands of adults stuck on years-long waiting lists. “Panorama” never made that point, and hardly engaged with ADHD organisations or neurodiverse patients.

<h4>#19: Naga Munchetty’s Trump Comments</h4>

In 2019, “BBC Breakfast” presenter Naga Munchetty, one of the corporation’s most well-known journalists, made some comments about Donald Trump and what he’d been saying about his Democrat rivals. Munchetty discussed it with co-host Dan Walker, and though she was very diplomatic, and even commented on-air that she knows she shouldn’t give an opinion, viewers still complained. What those viewers got out of arguing the BBC wasn’t being impartial enough about Donald Trump, of all people, who knows, but the BBC investigated and initially upheld the complaints – but only for Munchetty, not for Walker. This was an obvious double-standard, and it was eventually overturned.

<h4>#18: Prince Philip’s Death</h4>

This wasn’t immoral necessarily, but it was definitely annoying, and over 110,000 people ended up complaining to the Beeb about it in the end. Following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh in April 2021, the BBC put all of its regularly scheduled programming on-hold for round-the-clock documentaries about his life, airing them across all of its channels. Needless to say, people were livid. However you feel about the royal family, people shouldn’t be forced to sit and watch endless documentaries about them if they don’t want to, and there was no need for multiple BBC channels to all air the same coverage at once. It got more complaints than even “Jerry Springer: The Opera”.

<h4>#17: The Strictly Scandal</h4>

It’s clear now that a lot of the shine has come off the BBC’s most glamorous show. Despite being the Corporation’s most popular winter offering for the last twenty years, “Strictly” isn’t above criticism, and former start Amanda Abbington blew the whistle after quitting the show during the 2023 series. She said that she’d been mistreated by Giovanni Pernice, and that the BBC was withholding footage of her training sessions – footage that would prove she’s telling the truth. Other celebs have spoken out, too, including Zara McDermott, who said dancer Graziano di Prima had kicked her. Pernice and di Prima have left, but di Prima is now suing the Beeb.

<h4>#16: Ageism</h4>

Every few years, the BBC sacks or reshuffles its presenters in such a way that allegations of ageism begin to surface – and more than once, the cases have been won by those wronged ex-employees. Most notable was Miriam O’Reilly, who was booted off “Countryfile” when it was made a primetime show. She said that it was a clear example of age discrimination and took the BBC to court, where she ended up winning. The BBC found itself in a similar situation when Moira Stuart stepped down in 2007, sparking rumours that she’d gotten tired of the way older women are treated, while in 2023, it started up again when BBC News and BBC World News were merged.

<h4>#15: Sachsgate</h4>

In 2008, the news cycle was set ablaze with the story that Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross had left obscene messages on actor Andrew Sachs’ phone about his granddaughter, Georgina Baillie. The scandal was massive and decimated Russell Brand’s mainstream media career, though Jonathan Ross ultimately managed to survive. Years later, however, and the story got worse when allegations were made against Brand. People began speaking out about how he was allowed to do whatever he wanted, particularly while working at the BBC. Radio 2’s controller Lesley Douglas didn’t rein him in and ultimately resigned as well. She actually approved that the Sachsgate broadcast should go ahead knowing exactly what was going to happen.

<h4>#14: Jeremy Corbyn’s Hat</h4>

This bizarre scandal emerged in 2018, when Corbyn was still the leader of the Labour Party. A picture of him next to the Kremlin was used as a background graphic on an episode of “Newsnight”, and the BBC was quickly hit with allegations that the picture had been edited to make Corbyn’s hat appear “more Russian”. They also made it red to match the background, which they DIDN’T do when using a picture of Gavin Williamson with the same graphics a few weeks before. The BBC denied it, but it wasn’t the only time the Corporation got into hot water with Corbyn. In 2023, it said that Corbyn had never apologised for the Labour anti-Semitism scandal, when he had done so many times.

<h4>#13: Cliff Richard</h4>

Who knew that a few hours of helicopter footage would cost the BBC £2 million? Apparently, not them, or they may not have done this. Back in 2014, Cliff Richard’s home was raided and searched by police during Operation Yewtree. Strangely, though, somebody gave the BBC advanced knowledge that this was going to happen, so they brought out the choppers and broadcast the search live from the skies. No evidence has ever been found to support any allegations made against Cliff Richard, and he took the BBC to court for violating his privacy, winning millions in both damages and legal costs, along with an apology for what happened.

<h4>#12: North Korea</h4>

It’s rare that choices made by the BBC put people in genuine danger, but this did happen during the filming of yet another controversial “Panorama” episode in 2013. The BBC sent notable investigative journalist John Sweeney undercover with students from the London School of Economics. Not only were the students not told what was going on, but neither were the North Korean authorities; if they’d been caught harbouring a journalist trying to lift the lid on life north of the border, we don’t doubt that many arrests would have been made. It was shocking that anybody thought the journalism was worthing putting these oblivious students at risk of arrest.

<h4>#11: Huw Edwards</h4>

This scandal has been diabolical on a number of levels. First was the BBC’s own relentless reporting that a high-profile presenter had been accused of receiving explicit images of a teenage boy, all based on allegations in The Sun. Eventually Vicky Flind announced that the “unnamed presenter” was her husband, Huw Edwards. Edwards maintained a low profile but found himself arrested in November 2023, charged with accessing indecent images of minors. But in July of the following year, it came out that the BBC knew about this, asked the police to keep quiet, and kept paying Edwards tens of thousands until his resignation in April, including giving him a payrise. The Beeb didn’t even bother to sack him, though it’s now demanding he repay the money.

<h4>#10: TV License Harassment</h4>

Even if you diligently pay your TV license, you’ve probably received a snotty letter or email from them trying to catch you out. The simple fact is that if you don’t watch BBC shows on demand or live broadcasts, you don’t need the license. To boot, TV license agents don’t have any authority to come into your house when they show up. Despite this, the BBC still likes to threaten people with fines of up to £1000 and criminal convictions. You may agree that Britain having the BBC is a good thing, but nobody wants to be harassed, and over the years support for changing the BBC’s funding method has only grown. 

<h4>#9: Blue Peter Phone-Ins</h4>

It wasn’t the only show caught in this scandal, nor was the BBC the only channel, but there’s something to be said about scamming a bunch of kids who don’t know any better. Multiple broadcasters were caught out by Ofcom for rigging their phone-in competitions and charging outrageous rates, but “Blue Peter” got in trouble for faking competitions numerous times. Notably, there was the “Socks vs Cookie” contest, in which Cookie won the online poll, but the name Socks was chosen by producers. Worse was when they faked a phone-in competition the very same year, bringing on a random kid to pretend to be the winner.

<h4>#8: Gender Pay Gap</h4>

In 2018, it came out that there was a massive disparity in the rates male and female employees were paid at the BBC, in the first time it published such figures. This was the BBC’s top stars, with numerous top female broadcasters getting paid significantly less than their male counterparts. The BBC was investigated for the disparities, which happened between 2016 and 2017, and the issue was debated across rival broadcasters. However, in subsequent years, it's become clear that the pay disparity is still present and, in fact, has gotten larger as reported in 2021. That’s despite many presenters getting raises in response to the scandal initially.

<h4>#7: Battle of Orgreave Coverage</h4>

On the 18th of June 1984, there was a violent clash between striking miners and South Yorkshire Police in the small village of Orgreave. More than a hundred people were injured, but the BBC’s coverage of the incident implied that the miners had been violent and that the police response had been justified. It did this by broadcasting the miners’ violence FIRST and the police SECOND, suggesting it was them who started it, when really, the police were to blame. Numerous investigations since have proven the miners were wrongly maligned and unjustly shown as violent, and activists have been demanding an apology from the BBC for years. It’s still yet to arrive, though.

<h4>#6: Martin Bashir’s Interview with Diana</h4>

This explosive, tell-all interviewed aired on the BBC in 1995, showing the Princess of Wales talking candidly about her life as a royal and her marriage to Prince Charles. It angered Buckingham Palace because Diana wasn’t cleared to go ahead with it, but years later, and it angered a lot of other people, too. It turned out that journalist Martin Bashir had attained this interview with Diana through fraud, by threatening her with false bank statements. This all came out in 2020 after an inquiry, which also found Bashir had breached the BBC’s editorial standards, and the BBC had to apologise to Diana’s family.

<h4>#5: Fake Child Labour</h4>

In 2008, an episode of “Panorama” called “Primark: On the Rack” aired, showing shocking footage of child labour practices ongoing in factories used by Primark. The factories were in Bangalore, India, and appeared to show three young boys involved in making clothes. However, Primark disputed the findings – though it still fired three of its manufacturers – and it later came out that the footage had been faked. Worse, the BBC KNEW the footage was fake before putting it in “Panorama”, as evidence showed, and the broadcaster had to apologise to Primark three years later.

<h4>#4: Transphobic Article</h4>

The BBC has recently gotten in more and more trouble where trans rights are concerned, often refusing to report on protests outside its own offices and, in 2021, quitting its coalition with LGBT charity Stonewall over disagreements on the BBC’s trans coverage. But matters got worse later that same year when an article was published on the BBC claiming that lesbians were being “pressured into sex by some trans women”. Very quickly, the article was debunked as being wildly inaccurate, quoting a baseless study, and featuring an interview with a woman who was – even at the time – a self-admitted predator and bigot. LGBT charities unanimously agreed that the article was harmful, but the BBC has only responded poorly.

<h4>#3: Axing CBBC</h4>

In 2022, news broke that the BBC’s controller Tim Davie was going to be axing CBBC and BBC Four. The channels will eventually disappear from broadcast and will be moved permanently online. Online moves in the past haven’t exactly gone smoothly for the Beeb, as it eventually reversed its notorious decision to shift BBC Three online. But while BBC Three was always aimed at teens and young adults, CBBC is one of very few children’s channels available on Freeview and without an internet connection. This means it’s going to be the country’s most disadvantaged kids who suffer with the loss of CBBC. The BBC blamed competition from Netflix for the decision, bizarrely.

<h4>#2: BNP on Question Time</h4>

For a very short while, the British National Party was one of the largest political parties in the country – until UKIP came along and stole their thunder. But the BNP was always controversial thanks to its right-wing, fascist roots. If that seems like a bit of an exaggeration, remember that the party was founded by former members of the National Front, and for a while, it had a fascist paramilitary wing. So, it was shocking to see the 21st-century iteration of the BNP apparently legitimised by a “Question Time” appearance. Leader at the time, Nick Griffin, appeared on the show, landing the BBC in hot water for platforming an anti-immigrant reactionary on prime-time television.

<h4>#1: Jimmy Savile</h4>

Enabling Jimmy Savile for decades and seemingly ignoring his appalling behaviour until after his death is undoubtedly the worst thing the BBC bosses have done. Hundreds of people came forward to talk about their experiences after his death in 2011, unravelling years of horrific crimes. Some were even committed while Savile was volunteering at various hospitals, with full investigations substantiating the claims put to him. It also took a while for the BBC to truly acknowledge what had happened, in the face of numerous exposés from rival outlets like ITV. It was one of the biggest, most horrendous scandals to ever hit the country, with the BBC at the epicentre.

Let us know in the comments whether you still pay your TV licence.