The Labour-dominated committee was focused on a ‘whodunit’. MP Rupa Huq tried to do exactly what the BBC so often tries to do, which is to condemn with ‘guilt by association’ with campaign group History Reclaimed, noting that one of its lead members, Professor Robert Toombs, “is a prominent Brexiteers”. In response, Michael Prescott noted that History Reclaimed’s observations seemed very reasonable, and it had proposed a sensible ‘fix’, which the BBC wouldn’t listen to.
Huq also tried to pin MP with being motivated by Right-wing themes “Lawfare, reproductive rights, Trump, Trans, Gaza: are they not all from one perspective?” she said. Of course it was the BBC’s agenda which was being exposed, not Prescott’s.
“Lawfare, reproductive rights, Trump, Trans, Gaza: are they not all from one perspective?” — Rupa Huq MP and member of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee to Michael Prescott, former member of the BBC’s EGSC standards committee
During the cross-questioning there was no reference by any of the committee members to the value of an impartial BBC to, as per its Royal Charter, “reflect, represent and serve” us as citizens. Nor were there any reference to the importance to democracy of such impartial news and reporting.
On the Committee, chair Dame Caroline Dinenage MP is more of a LibDem than a Tory, is one of the main movers behind the Online Safety Bill. In the autumn of 2023, Dinenage wrote to multiple media outlets demanding Russell Brand be banned and/or de-monetised.
Hopes of a thorough-going cross-questioning should have been slim – and such it was.