The BBC article in which it defended Brand last night is both dishonest and shows a clear political bias. During the European election campaign the Labour Party took to describing UKIP and the Brexit Party as "far right". It was a prominent feature of Labour's campaign and the same language appeared in the BBC's defence of Jo Brand yesterday.
"Brand, speaking after Mr Farage and a number of far-right European election candidates were covered in milkshakes during campaign walkabouts in May..."
BBC labels UKIP/Brexit Party 'far right'
The 'far right' label doesn't stand up to much scrutiny, but the left has done everything it can to normalise its use and demonise its opponents. The BBC deployed it to craftily undermine the target of the 'joke', but then the difference between the Beeb and the political left has long been a blurred line. Jo Brand herself is a famous Labour supporter (as is Danny Baker) and appeared in a Labour election broadcast in 2015.
In the article the BBC goes on to flat out lie about the online response to Brand's 'joke'.
"Her [Brand's] follow-up comments were edited out of widely-shared clips on social media".
BBC
This is simply not true. Her remarks after the acid 'joke' in which she said it was "purely a fantasy" were left in every single clip we can find, including the one we used yesterday. Guido Fawkes left it in, as did this YouTuber and also TV Licence Resistance.
Brand herself has not commented on the controversy. Nigel Farage was asked about it on Fox News.
Meanwhile, the petition to abolish the TV licence is fast approaching 200,000.
