BBC Trust rejects calls for reform of Thought for the Day

The BBC Trust has published its findings on 12 separate appeals regarding Thought for the Day (a religious sermon which is foisted on listeners in the middle of the Today Programme). Its response is an intransigent whitewash.

I have written briefly to the National Secular Society as follows:

Dear Sir,

This week, of course, the BBC Trust rejected outright every single one of 12 separate appeals put to it regarding Thought for the Day. This was a very disappointing result for people of reason who are tired (putting it mildly) of having religious people pontificate to them in the middle of a news programme.

Are the BBC correct in their belief that this, really, is the way the public want it? There’s an easy way of telling. Take a look at this Have Your Say debate, which is one of the most popular on the BBC’s own site currently.

No. 1 most popular comment with readers (Recommended by 265 people):

“Religion is the main reason for almost all the world’s troubles; it does not bring people together – it drives them apart.”

No. 2 most popular (Recommended by 237 people):

“What does faith mean to you?”
“Mass-organized superstition as a political tool of social engineering and control.”

No. 3 is also pro-reason.

No. 4 kind of makes the case very clearly (Recommended by 170 people):

“Religion is to believe in an imaginary god. I don’t mind as long as the people who believe in it keep it to themselves and don’t try to force their imaginary god on the rest of us.”

So now everything is clear then. Even Christians agreed that TFTD needed reform. The BBC Trust haven’t listened. The religiousness of the individual trustees must be scrutinised, and the fight raised up a notch.

Best regards,

Gavin Orland

http://www.gavinorland.org

The NSS printed my letter, but strangely omitted the first line in which I mentioned that theirs was not the only appeal.