Emily Maitlis has criticised the BBC for “both-sideism” in its coverage of Brexit – suggesting its attempts to hear both sides of the argument led to “superficial balance”.
The former BBC journalist also argued the BBC and other media outlets are failing to tackle the impact of leaving the EU today, saying that “sidestepping” the issue “feels like a conspiracy against the British people”.
Maitlis, who left the broadcaster this year for rival media group Global, was addressing the annual MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday.
In one striking passage that won praise on social media, Maitlis said: “It might take our producers five minutes to find 60 economists who feared Brexit and five hours to find a sole voice who espoused it.
“But by the time we went on air we simply had one of each; we presented this unequal effort to our audience as balance. It wasn’t.”
She added: “I’d later learn that the ungainly name for this myopic style of journalism: ‘both-sideism’, which talks to the way it reaches a superficial balance while obscuring a deeper truth.”
Not everyone agreed.
The broadcaster suggested the problems continue, and outlets including the BBC adopt an “automatic crouch position whenever the Brexit issue looms large”.
She said: “Many broadcasters fear discussing the obvious economic cause of major change in this country in case they get labelled pessimistic, anti-populist, or worse still, as above: unpatriotic.
“And yet every day that we sidestep these issues with glaring omissions feels like a conspiracy against the British people.”
Maitlis joined the BBC in 2001 and presented Newsnight from 2006.
In February, she and Jon Sopel announced they were leaving the BBC to join Global, where they are hosting a new podcast, titled The News Agents, and a radio show together on LBC.
In her speech, Maitlis also said the BBC’s board includes an “active agent of the Conservative party” as she issued a warning about her former employer’s impartiality.