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Emily Maitlis praised for ‘telling it like it is’ after calling out ‘active Tory party agent’ on BBC’s board-Meghna Amin-Entertainment – Metro
Maitlis was praised for her bravery.
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Emily Maitlis has been showered with praise after she called out an ‘active agent of the Conservative party’ on the BBC’s board.
Maitlis announced her departure from the BBC earlier this year, having joined in 2001 and hosted Newsnight since 2006, as she went on to join rival media group Global where she hosts a new podcast and a radio show with another former BBC journalist, Jon Sopel.
Speaking at the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday, Maitlis spoke out about the BBC’s impartiality, revealing how shocked she was at how quickly the BBC moved to apologise to Downing Street after her controversial Newsnight monologue two years ago.
The TV presenter received immense backlash for her opening monologue during an episode of Newsnight in 2020, in which she said Dominic Cummings, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, had ‘broken the rules’ with a lockdown trip to Durham and ‘the country can see that, and it’s shocked the Government cannot’.
Maitlis’ comments attracted over 20,000 complaints and the BBC later decided that the presenter breached impartiality rules, saying in a statement: ‘We believe the introduction we broadcast did not meet our standards of due impartiality.’
‘Why had the BBC immediately and publicly sought to confirm the government spokesman’s opinion?’ she said, continuing: ‘Without any kind of due process? It makes no sense for an organisation that is admirably, famously rigorous about procedure – unless it was perhaps sending a message of reassurance directly to the government itself?’
Emily delivered the annual MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival (Picture: PA)
Emily Maitlis’ comments about Dominic Cummings on Newsnight received 20,000 complaints (Picture: BBC / Nigel Ramdial)
Referring to Robbie Gibb, Theresa May’s former communications director, Maitlis added: ‘Put this in the context of the BBC Board, where another active agent of the Conservative party – former Downing Street spin doctor and former adviser to BBC rival GB News – now sits, acting as the arbiter of BBC impartiality.’
People have flocked to social media to share praise of Maitlis, with one writing: ‘THANK YOU, @maitlis for telling it like it is. God knows the BBC needs journalists like you, @jonsopel, @lewis_goodall etc with the guts to speak truth to power. It’s simply heartbreaking to see the corporation so neutered.’
Another penned: ‘Thank you Emily Maitlis. Finally someone has called out the BBC’s endless Tory propaganda.’
Someone else commented: ‘This woman is a f**king god! She’s saying everything. EVERYTHING! Emily Maitlis just set fire to the BS we’ve been showered with for 6 years.’
‘More than happy for Emily Maitlis to start the revolution,’ another penned.
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Elsewhere in her lecture, the broadcaster recalled feeling conflicted over an interview she conducted that same year with Hollywood icon Robert De Niro, in which he ‘raged’ about Mr Trump’s ‘mishandling of the pandemic’.
Maitlis told a Newsnight editor that they couldn’t air the interview as it was ‘too anti-Trump’.
‘I am terrified that by putting out the interview as it stands we will be seen as biased,’ she explained.
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