The original complaint made to the BBC regarding Naga Munchetty’s comments about Donald Trump’s racist language also mentioned her co-host Dan Walker, it has been reported.
Last week, the BBC confirmed they had rebuked Naga over comments she made on BBC Breakfast, referring to tweets Trump had posted in which he suggested four Democratic politicians should “go back” to their home countries.
Saying she was “absolutely furious” to hear the US leader making such comments, the broadcaster told co-presenter Dan Walker in July: “Every time I have been told, as a woman of colour, to go back to where I came from, that was embedded in racism.
“Now, I’m not accusing anyone of anything here, but you know what certain phrases mean.”
After the BBC chose to uphold a complaint about the incident on the grounds that Naga had breached the corporation’s impartiality guidelines, The Guardian has now reported the original complaint also made reference to her co-host.
This comes after the BBC’s Director of Editorial Policy and Standards, David Jordan said that they had not been able to include Dan Walker in their ruling because the complaint only made reference to Naga Munchetty.
The BBC has since pointed out that when the complainant in question was asked to contact the corporation’s Executive Complaints Unit with a more concise version of their grievance, only Naga’s name was mentioned.
Referencing David Jordan’s quotes, they also pointed out these referred to the ECU complaint, and not the original complaint received by the BBC.
A BBC spokesperson said: “The appeal to the ECU focused on comments by one presenter, but the statement from the executive team on Friday is clear, the BBC is not impartial on racism.
“Racism is not an opinion and it is not a matter for debate. Racism is racism. Naga has the very clear support of the top of the organisation.”
Jordan previously suggested there had been some “perhaps wilful misinterpretation” when it came to the reporting around the BBC’s decision.
He said: “To be honest, I think [people] need to understand the judgement on what it did say and it didn’t say, and it emphatically didn’t say that Naga Munchetty was wrong to respond to what is clearly a racist form of language, and also to the effect it will have on people like her, people of colour in the UK.”
He also clarified there had been a “large number of complaints” made to the BBC after the conversation, but only one reached their Executive Complaints Unit.
The Trump tweets Naga had been responding to were written about US politicians Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley. All four are US citizens, and three of them were born in America.