The BBC are formally investigating Emily Maitlis and accused her of ‘overstepping the mark’ with her monologue about Dominic Cummings and the ‘blind loyalty’ of his boss Boris Johnson.
The corporation has been ‘flooded’ with more than 20,000 complaints about the Newsnight host – but this figures includes thousands of emails from her supporters who feel she has been thrown under the bus.
Today The Daily Telegraph reported that the BBC executive complaints team will start a probe and once it is completed Ofcom is also expected to carry out its own investigation, after receiving 247 complaints in 24 hours.
Last night the corporation issued a second longer statement about Ms Maitlis’ speech on Tuesday night, where she claimed the public had been made to ‘feel like fools’ in the row over No 10 aide Mr Cummings’ lockdown trip to Durham with his family.
Her Newsnight colleagues are said to be in uproar but one senior BBC broadcaster said ”a bunch of BBC managers were very offended’ by her words and last night released a new explanation, said to be signed off by the director of news Fran Unsworth and involved head of current affairs Joanna Carr.
It said: ‘Our editorial guidelines allow us to make professional judgments, but not to express opinion. The dividing line can be fine, but we aim to say so if we think we have overstepped the mark.’
Emily Maitlis was out with her banker husband Mark Gwynne in West London yesterday as the storm raged over her Dominic Cummings monologue
The Newsnight host spoke out on Tuesday’s show and claimed the public had been made to ‘feel like fools’
The statement also insisted that Ms Maitlis’ speech ‘risked giving the perception that the BBC was taking sides and expressing an opinion, rather than being impartial’.
Ms Maitlis is said to have been so upset by her treatment she asked for the night off on Wednesday, with reporter Katie Razzall standing in.
She also thanked those who had sent messages of support having already retweeted a number of positive comments about her opening speech – with one describing it as ‘savage brilliance’ and another saying she ‘tells it how it is’.
Another she shared said: ‘Emily Maitlis and Newsnight should be praised. There was no bias, just good reporting, investigation, challenging and holding to account. Well done BBC and not just Radio 4 this time. Good. More please.’
Anger flooded in from some incensed by the initial broadcast, which they believed showed bias, while others were furious about the corporation’s rapid climb down, after it issued a statement saying Maitlis had broken the rules.
In an introduction to the current affairs programme, Miss Maitlis opened with a highly-critical speech claiming the public ‘feel like fools’ and accused Boris Johnson of showing ‘blind loyalty’ towards his adviser.
Mr Cummings has been at the centre of a row after it emerged that he had travelled to his parents house in Durham during lockdown – 260 miles from his home in London.
Mr Cummings had ‘broken the rules’ and ‘the country can see that, and it’s shocked the Government cannot’, Miss Maitlis said. The ‘public mood’ is ‘one of fury, contempt and anguish’, she added.
Within 24 hours, the BBC released a statement saying the programme had not met ‘standards of due impartiality’ adding that staff had been ‘reminded of the guidelines’.
The controversy has created huge divisions within the BBC between those who support Newsnight and Ms Maitlis and others who think she broke the rules.
Yesterday the presenter said she had been ‘overwhelmed’ by support from viewers.
Although she had been replaced on Wednesday night’s programme by broadcaster Katie Razzall, she revealed it was her own decision not to appear.
One Newsnight insider said there was ‘complete astonishment’ and ‘fury’ amongst the team about the way BBC bosses had handled the situation.
The ‘speed’ at which the corporation put out the statement was ‘unprecedented’ and there had been ‘zero engagement’ between news chiefs and the programme, they said. Bosses had acted ‘partially’ by the taking the Government’s side, the source said.
Former Newsnight economics editor Paul Mason meanwhile, yesterday said the decision made him ‘sick’.
But other respected broadcasters at the BBC hit out, saying Newsnight needed to stick to the rules like everyone else.
One well-known journalist said it was not the role of Newsnight to ‘speak on behalf of the British people’ – because there was not one unanimous view.
The source added: ‘There are the rules and you just have to find a way of dealing with it’.
Another respected broadcaster said ‘a bunch of BBC managers were very offended’ by the speech.
Wednesday’s statement is understood to have been signed off by the BBC’s director of news Fran Unsworth and involved the broadcaster’s head of current affairs Joanna Carr.
Last night, some accused the BBC of sexism, noting that other male presenters who ‘editorialise’ had not been hauled over the coals in the same way.
One female BBC journalist said ‘Amongst a lot of women in the BBC there is a feeling that there is a double standard in operation and that they are held up to a higher level of account and due impartiality than some of the men with a high profile.’
A petition entitled ‘Reinstate Emily Maitlis’, even though she has not been dropped from the show, also drew attention to sexism. It read: ‘How can it be just and appropriate that a woman is removed for telling the truth, while an unelected man appears bulletproof even after lying and showing no contrition?’
Last night one Newsnight journalist said: ‘There are a legion of unanswered questions…The speed at which they (the BBC) came to this decision, which was completely unprecedented, with zero engagement, almost zero engagement virtually with the editor let alone with the rest of the team.’
They said: ‘There is complete astonishment and fury’, adding: ‘Acting this way delegitimises everything in the programme that night and the programme’s coverage more generally.’
Emily Maitlis tweeted that she had asked for the night off last night and thanked people for their support as some viewers said she had been reprimanded by the BBC for telling the facts of the story
But other long-serving BBC journalists backed bosses.
One said: ‘No-one likes to see any colleague hung out to dry like that. That was quite harsh. If you work for the BBC there are the rules and you just have to find a way of dealing with it.
‘Speaking on behalf of the British people when some British people don’t agree with what you are saying. It’s not the whole British people. It wasn’t really necessary.’
‘We are at a time when we need real public support. I think it is a shame to divide people and make them angry with the BBC as an institution.’
Yesterday Miss Maitlis tweeted: ‘Been overwhelmed by all the kindness, messages – and support on here – and I’ve probably missed much of it. A big thank you from us all at Newsnight.’
The BBC statement about the episode said the programme ‘should have done more to make clear the introduction was a summary of the questions we would examine, with all the accompanying evidence, in the rest of the programme’.
It added: ‘As it was, we believe the introduction we broadcast did not meet our standards of due impartiality.’
Last year, the BBC became embroiled in an impartiality row over on-air comments made by BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty about US President Donald Trump and racism.
Munchetty was initially judged to have breached BBC editorial guidelines but the ruling was later reversed.