{"id":313288,"date":"2025-08-07T05:46:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T05:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=313288"},"modified":"2025-08-09T05:57:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T05:57:59","slug":"ex-bbc-journalist-exposes-migrant-protest-bias-youre-erased-or-smeared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=313288","title":{"rendered":"Ex-BBC journalist exposes migrant protest ‘bias’ – ‘You’re erased or smeared!’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jon King \u2013 the Daily Express July 6, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Police confront protesters outside an asylum-seeker hotel in Epping. Note the police camera person filming protesters, just as they once did in the old Soviet Union<\/p><\/div>\n

A former BBC journalist has accused the broadcaster of “rigging” public perceptions of anti-immigration protests<\/a>. Chris Middleton posted a series of claims on social media, including that the BBC<\/a> “smears” or ignores those it disagrees with.<\/p>\n

In a thread on X, Mr Middleton wrote: “The BBC<\/a> does not report on protests fairly. How do I know? Because I used to work there”. He claimed if the BBC<\/a> agrees with protesters, then it gives “sympathetic” coverage<\/p>\n

But if it disagrees, then protesters are “smeared or ignored” by the broadcaster, according to the X-user. As evidence, Mr Middleton, who reportedly worked as a freelance newsreader doing shifts for BBC<\/a> Newcastle, pointed to the thousands of people who protested against the use of hotels<\/a> to house asylum seekers last weekend.<\/p>\n

Thousands took to the streets of London, Manchester and Newcastle in protest at their continued use. Counter-protests were also staged in response.<\/p>\n

Mr Middleton said the BBC<\/a> ran just one story about the protests which focused on “arrests”, “clashes” and “anti-migrant groups”. He added: “No interviews. No voices from the protesters. Just framing: ‘These people are dangerous'”<\/p>\n

The journalist continued: “I know first hand how this works. I worked at the BBC<\/a> during the Sunderland protests and riots last year.<\/p>\n

“Here\u2019s what I was told: ‘The protests may go off peacefully, in which case they\u2019re not newsworthy’. The BBC<\/a> only wants to cover protests against immigration when they are violent.”<\/p>\n

He then lists a series of BBC<\/a> stories which he alleges show bias, including a report of a protest sparked by the death of George Floyd in which the BBC<\/a> reported 27 police officers being hurt.<\/p>\n

Mr Middleton tweeted: “The BBC<\/a> reports that the protests were ‘largely peaceful’. That\u2019s despite the fact that 27 police officers were injured, including one ‘who suffered a broken collarbone, a broken rib, and punctured lung’.<\/p>\n

“The BBC<\/a> then quotes a protestor, who says “‘these situations don’t come from nowhere'” and the police had been ‘acting very aggressively’ towards protesters.”<\/p>\n

He concluded: “Sympathetic coverage for the protestors and their cause, despite the fact that 27 police officers were injured.”<\/p>\n

The journalist, who claimed to have lost his job as a BBC<\/a> newsreader when it emerged he was behind an anti-Keir Starmer charity single<\/a>, goes on to make similar claims over coverage of pro-Palestine protests and anti-far right protests in London.<\/p>\n

On BBC<\/a> coverage of protests in Epping outside a migrant hotel, Mr Middleton accused the BBC<\/a> of framing protesters in a negative light.<\/p>\n

He accused the broadcaster of later downplaying the number of protesters and counter-protesters who took to the streets of Epping for more protests.<\/p>\n

Mr Middleton ended by claiming: “What have we learned? The BBC<\/a> doesn\u2019t report on protests. It curates narratives.<\/p>\n

“If your cause fits the worldview, you get empathy. If it doesn\u2019t, you\u2019re erased or smeared. No overt lies, just framing that dictates whether the reader should sympathise with the cause or not.”<\/p>\n

The BBC<\/a> was approached for comment.<\/p>\n

It is not the first time the BBC<\/a> has been accused of bias reporting. Pro-Israel<\/a> protesters accused the corporation of failing to describe Hamas as terrorists in the wake of the October 7 attacks.<\/p>\n

Protesters also gathered outside the London headquarters of the BBC<\/a> to criticise the broadcaster’s coverage of Israel<\/a>‘s attacks on Lebanon in September 2024.<\/p>\n

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested outside the same headquarters in May, accusing the BBC<\/a> of concealing Israel<\/a>‘s genocide in its coverage of Gaza.<\/p>\n

The BBC<\/a>‘s editorial policy insists impartiality is “fundamental” to the BBC<\/a>‘s purpose and is “enshrined” in its Charter. BBC<\/a> guidelines include the line: “The BBC<\/a> is committed to achieving due impartiality in all its output”.<\/p>\n

They add impartiality always rests on “good” judgement, rather than a mathematical formula and involves accuracy, fairness, objectivity and open-mindedness.<\/p>\n

The guidance notes: “Just as important as the BBC<\/a>‘s content are the words and behaviours of all the people who represent the BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“External activities and public expressions of opinion, including on social media, may affect perceptions of the BBC<\/a>‘s impartiality as much as its output.”<\/p>\n

The guidance also states those working in a role that requires impartiality who want to express opinions in public on controversial issues to take part in political activity “must” tell bosses first.<\/p>\n

Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former BBC journalist breaks ranks to expose how the corporation is deliberately misrepresenting protests over government migration policy <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":276617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-controlling-the-news-andor-the-free-exchange-of-ideas-and-information","category-The_Media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=313288"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313292,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313288\/revisions\/313292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/276617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=313288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=313288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=313288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}