How many times have we felt that not a day goes by but we are bombarded with another news item about the LGBT movement? If it is not pride week (or month), it is Transgender Day of Remembrance, or National Coming Out Day, with the media ensuring that we have not missed the occasion. Yet perhaps it is only our imagination that makes us feel that the news is endlessly filled with articles related to the homosexual movement. Perhaps, as evangelical Christians, we are unreasonably reacting against any mention of LGBT issues, feeding our own unconscious bias and seeing a trend which is not truly there. Or perhaps not.
The reality, as we will show, is that the media is replete with reports on every aspect of the LBGT community, and nowhere is that fact more clearly illustrated that on the BBC's news website. During 2019 a study of the BBC's reporting reveals that is has published almost 700 articles and reports relating to LGBT issues. Taking into account articles tagged as either 'LGBT' ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cp7r8vgln2wt/lgbt ) or 'Transgender' (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cwlw3xz01lxt/transgender) the BBC published 698 articles during 2019, just short of an average of 2 articles per day. This is a figure which should be considered as conservative, as much of the Israel Folau controversy was not tagged as 'LGBT'. That a section of society, estimated to be but a tiny percentage of the population, should attract such constant reporting over an entire year should astound us. On three dates during the year; 2nd May, 26th June, and 5th July a high of 9 articles per day were published. The argument may be made by some that the BBC, and doubtless other media organisations, are only responding to and reporting on the popular movements and trends of the day. Might it not rather be, that instead of responding to the movement, they are fuelling it.
How even is it possible to report so excessively on such a small section of the population? It can only be done if every subset of the LGBT community is highlighted, and every LGBT related event around the world (whether minor or major) brought to our attention - and that is exactly what the BBC has done. In 2019 UK taxpayers money has been spent on highlighting issues such the gay partner of a Serbian MP giving birth, what it is like to be transgender in Colombia, a South African dating show's first gay farmer and the struggles of an 11 year old transgender skater in Brazil, as well as pride parades in Bosnia, North Macedonia and Taiwan. Given that the BBC now employs both an LGBT correspondent and a Gender & Identity correspondent this should come as no surprise. What it should however be, is a concern, particularly as a number of the articles have been published by the youth orientated section of the BBC news website. Newsround (aimed at primary school children) had four LGBT related articles last year, and Newsbeat (also tailored towards a younger audience) reported 50 times on LGBT issues.
Such a level of reporting ought to both anger and concern us. The constant reporting on not only major LGBT issues, but every nuance and subset of the LGBT community makes it difficult to see anything but a clear agenda and bias within the BBC. As the BBC is a publicly funded organisation it is your money which contributes towards reporting on such 'vital' matters as jobs for India's transgender community and protests at a Georgia gay film premiere. We would encourage people to complain to the BBC over their excessive reporting using the below link:
The list of articles published by the BBC under the topics 'LGBT' or 'Transgender' can be viewed here.
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