Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman offended viewers by referring to “religious hogwash” and “stupid people” while discussing creation and the Old Testament with Richard Dawkins, the BBC Trust has ruled. But, miraculously, “the piece achieved due impartiality.”
Nick Donnelly comments:
Now we have it in black and white from the BBC, calling religious people ‘stupid’ and the Old Testament ‘hogwash’ is impartial and fair according to their editorial standards.
The BBC Trust even excuses Jeremy Paxman of the offence that they acknowledge he caused by concluding that his use of ‘stupid’ and ‘hogwash’ was unintentionally offensive. Does the contempt of the BBC for Jews, Muslims and Christians know no bounds?
The BBC don’t give a damn about causing offense, particularly to religious people, but they do care about their reputation for being impartial and fair. This seems to have been the substantive element of the complaint, and they were having none of it even though the facts of Paxman’s prejudice speak for themselves.
