Brody's Notes... BBC To Gay Media: Gay Execution Supporter Interview Was Required For ‘Balance’

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) DEC 30 | Britain's Pink News UK is reporting that the BBC has mounted a defence of its decision to interview a known Anti-Gay activist, Stephen Green, of right-wing group Christian Voice. According to The Pink News:

A spokesman for the corporation told PinkNews.co.uk that the interview with a right-wing Christian fundamentalist allowed the BBC News at Six to reflect a genuine debate over the issue of surrogacy for gay couples.

The Pink News notes that the December 28th BBC’s flagship News at Six broadcast was watched by nearly seven million people, ending with the report of the birth of Sir Elton and Mr Furnish’s first child. The report contained just one interview, with Stephen Green, of right-wing group Christian Voice, who has in the past supported the death penalty for gay men. The same report was then repeated on a number of occasions throughout the evening on the BBC News Channel.

A BBC spokesman claimed that the coverage on the flagship BBC News at Six programme should be seen in the wider context of all of the BBC’s coverage of the birth of Sir Elton’s child. The BBC claim that there is genuine debate about gay couples having surrogate children and that it was right for the BBC to find someone who was opposed to the practise as the only interview in the report.

The BBC has refused to answer whether other organisations were also contacted to comment on the birth of Sir Elton’s child, or if Christian Voice, a small fundamentalist group with around 500 supporters was the only organisation contacted. A BBC source told Pink News: “it is Christmas so a lot of people are away or not answering their telephones.”

In a strongly worded opinion after the news article, Pink News Executive Editor Jessica Geen writes:

The BBC has effectively admitted interviewing a known homophobic extremist in order to ‘reflect’ what they perceive is a genuine debate over gay couples having surrogate children. The corporation makes no apology for the choice of interviewee. Pink News believes that the BBC were unable to find anyone else willing to give an interview on camera in opposition to Sir Elton’s decision to have a child.

The decision to include an interview with Stephen Green was hurtful not just to the millions of LGBT licence fee payers but also to millions of Christians who do not hold or subscribe to the extremist views of Christian Voice. Most Christians would not support the abhorrent views of Mr Green and his small band of supporters who simply smear the name of the Christian faith.

As many on Twitter, Facebook and Pink News comment pages have pointed out, the BBC’s logic would suggest that a racist be asked to comment on a mixed race couple having a surrogate child in order to reflect ‘debate’ in the country. Indeed the membership of Christian Voice is considerably smaller than that of many ‘racist’ organisations.