Senior BBC staff have taken a course in “unconscious bias” in a bid to stop them recruiting new employees “in their own image”, the director of news has disclosed.

James Harding, who joined the BBC last year, said his staff had been given training to improve the diversity of new recruits, with targets to increase the representation of ethnic minorities.

In a speech to staff at New Broadcasting House yesterday, he disclosed the senior recruiting board were so concerned about continuing to employ staff with similar backgrounds that they had each take a course in “unconscious bias”.

The speech follows findings from the BBC Trust, published yesterday (Mon), which order BBC management to increase the number of ethnic minority faces in news and current affairs, both on screen and behind the camera.

Mr Harding said: “If we really are determined to make the BBC more representative of the audiences it serves, then we have to intervene.

He added: “Across News, we worry that we have a tendency to recruit in our own image, so all members of the News Group Board have taken a course in unconscious bias.”

According to the BBC Trust, research has shown that some viewers and listeners find BBC News too “distant” and “formal” in tone, and failing “to reflect the diversity of life in the UK today”.

The Trust said: “In part, this audience need could be addressed by BBC News and Current Affairs looking, sound and, more importantly, being as diverse as the audience it serves.

“This is not a new challenge and it is one recognised by the entire industry, but the Trust believes the BBC must take a leadership role for the sector as a whole.

“Audiences need to recognise their own lives, perspectives and concerns duly reflected in the BBC’s programmes. BBC News needs to be heard as having a multiplicity of voices, with its own authority grounded in its experience and understanding of the many interests, cultures and communities that make up the UK.”

The BBC has already been publicly challenged to improve the representation of ethnic minority by actors including Lenny Henry.

The Trust has now given management a year to produce “concrete proposals from the BBC to achieve this, and further progress in terms of both gender and ethnicity”.

So….representative of the nation…..but only in terms of gender and ethnicity…..to me that’s almost an irrelevance….that’s not the BBC’s job…its job is to provide the news, regardless of gender and ethnicity, and to do that impartially they must recruit people not using skin colour or whether they sit down to piss as a critieria but their politics and their world view.

It’s possible to do that…obviously…..just look at who the BBC recruits now….more often than not they are like minded people…if they express views that align with those  in the BBC bubble they might get a tap on the shoulder…much like the good old days when MI5 or the KGB were touring the universities….‘we like the way you think…fancy a job?’

I’ve already mentioned in a previous post the likes of Giles Fraser and Stacey Dooley getting ‘tapped up’….and what to make of Aaqil Ahmed, a Muslim, as head of religious programming?…especially when he was already controversial when at C4….and then there’s Labour’s James Harding himself….or Alastair Campbell or Jacqui Smith.

And of course (h/t David )  Doreen Lewis.

Then there’s the ‘Asian Network’…what’s that about?  Ghetto radio…are people of ‘Asian Heritage’ not British then?  Does having brown skin mean you don’t like The Rolling Stones or Blue Peter and have to have ‘Asian’ themed news and culture?  Why is it that white people can watch Trevor McDonald but brown people apparently can’t watch Huw Edwards?

In fact why is that so different to the thought of UKIP’s William Henwood who said if Lenny Henry wanted to be among Black people then he should go and live in a black country….the BBC has just altered that slightly…instead of shipping Asians who would prefer to be Asian out to Pakistan or India they bring Pakistan and India here.

The ‘Asian Network’…..a bit of ‘Apartheid’ brought to Britain by the BBC….its motto…..’You’re not really like us’.

Whilst people like Giles Fraser are seen as acceptable the BBC would never recruit anyone who had views in any way similar to Henwood’s….despite their own segregationist policies in regard to Asians….scoff at the European Tyranny, the climate orthodoxy, the benefits of uncontrolled immigration or the delights of Islam and you won’t find yourself with a parking space at BBC house or indeed granted a whole network dedicated to meeting the cultural and social needs of your personal ethnic, philosophical and political background.

The BBC reflecting “the diversity of life in the UK today”?   Just reflecting what they see in the mirror still.

Gender and ethnicity are easy to ‘deal with’….you can just wander around the office with a clipboard and do a count…Black, Asian, gay, female, male, Cornish…dealing with the lack of political balance is clearly beyond the abilities of the BBC…or rather not something that registers as a concern that needs to be dealt with…..they pay lip service to it but the reality is that the BBC is predominantly leftwing in its leanings….and intends to stay that way.

The BBC Trust wants to chat to you about all of this: