‘Resign then’: White BBC news chief says there are too many privileged white men in senior positions
Jonathan Munro, the BBC’s head of newsgathering, claimed there are too many privileged white men in senior positions at the company – prompting others to point out the fact that he himself is one.
Munro – who makes £180,000 a year – said on the Media Masters podcast, “I don’t think anybody can possibly think that that’s right [or] justifiable.”
“We don’t want all our editorial meetings to be dominated by what white people think,” he declared. “We don’t want any single group in society to dominate our editorial thinking, because we are not being diverse in our thought process.”
The BBC’s latest director-general, Tim Davie, has vowed to make the company 50 percent female, 20 percent BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic), and 12 percent disabled.
Munro was mocked for his comments due to the fact that he is a white man in a senior BBC position himself.
“Does this mean you’re resigning? Didn’t think so,” British columnist Toby Young reacted, while the Times’ Andrew Ellson wrote, “Presumably these comments by Mr Munro are a precursor to him resigning his £180k-a-year position in favour of an ethnic minority candidate..?”
Actor Laurence Fox also called on Munro to “take the lead and resign then,” while Defund the BBC – a grassroots campaign against the UK’s television license – declared, “The BBC aren’t interested in true diversity. They exclude those that disrupt their groupthink: white working class & socially conservative ‘people of colour.’”
“We agree, the white saviour metro-middleclass must stop dominating the news agenda,” the campaign said.
“We don’t want all our editorial meetings to be dominated by what white people think,” he declared. “We don’t want any single group in society to dominate our editorial thinking, because we are not being diverse in our thought process.”
The BBC’s latest director-general, Tim Davie, has vowed to make the company 50 percent female, 20 percent BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic), and 12 percent disabled.
Munro was mocked for his comments due to the fact that he is a white man in a senior BBC position himself.
“Does this mean you’re resigning? Didn’t think so,” British columnist Toby Young reacted, while the Times’ Andrew Ellson wrote, “Presumably these comments by Mr Munro are a precursor to him resigning his £180k-a-year position in favour of an ethnic minority candidate..?”
Actor Laurence Fox also called on Munro to “take the lead and resign then,” while Defund the BBC – a grassroots campaign against the UK’s television license – declared, “The BBC aren’t interested in true diversity. They exclude those that disrupt their groupthink: white working class & socially conservative ‘people of colour.’”
“We agree, the white saviour metro-middleclass must stop dominating the news agenda,” the campaign said.
