[Crimson Dynamo]

The Telegraph
@telegraph
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5h
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: BBC bosses “ignored” warnings about pro-transgender bias in
its sports coverage, The Telegraph can reveal.



Female staff raised concerns about uncritical reporting on transgender athletes
almost five years ago, messages reveal

BBC Sport bosses were told almost five years ago that stories about trans
athletes were often uncritical and celebratory “puff pieces”, while glossing
over any potentially negative impact on women’s sports.

However, insiders claim that the BBC persisted with overwhelmingly positive
coverage of otherwise controversial athletes, including Lia Thomas, the
biologically male swimmer, the weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, the cyclist Austin
Killips and Imane Khelif, the boxer.

BBC staff have reported feeling ignored and feeling unable to voice opinions
that went against the prevailing orthodoxy of affirming transgender identity

BBC Sport is currently led by Alex Kay-Jelski, who faced criticism for a column
he wrote for The Times in 2019 while he was the newspaper’s sports editor.

In the piece, he wrote that Martina Navratilova, the nine-time Wimbledon
champion, and the Olympic swimming medallist Sharron Davies, both vocal
opponents of allowing biological males to compete in women’s categories,
were “not experts” on the matter of trans participation in sport.


Mr Kay-Jelski appeared to compare those who portrayed trans athletes as
being “threatening” to racists who warned, “Don’t let black men in the same
shops as you or they’ll rape your women”.

Following widespread criticism of his appointment as BBC Sport director in
2024, including from the Harry Potter author JK Rowling, Mr Kay-Jelski said
he would leave his views “at the door”.





https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...ports-stories/