SCOTS superstar Alan Cumming has said we have a duty to call out BBC bias against independence, saying they “really crossed a line” during interviews he took part in ahead of the 2014 referendum.
The multi-talented performer has been an outspoken advocate for independence for years and during the campaign travelled from his New York home to Scotland to help push the Yes message alongside leading politicians.
He spoke at the launch of the Yes campaign in Edinburgh eight years ago and joined then deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on the campaign trail in Glasgow closer to the September referendum.
Now, as part of an exclusive interview for The National’s indyref fifth anniversary magazine, he has said at the time he personally felt BBC bias impacting on his own interactions with the broadcaster.
“I felt like the BBC, it was very biased, even with the interviews that I did. And I’m not a politician, I was someone who was supporting it,” he explains. “I found the attitude of BBC Scotland incredibly biased and some of the things they were saying and questions they were asking and things they were posing to me really crossed a line.”
He said while it is “very important” to have a spectrum of views represented in the media, it causes him concern that the state broadcaster would appear to hold bias. “When it’s a public funded television network that is being so biased on a political issue that concerns the whole country I think we have to speak up about that, because that’s actually veering into state totalitarianism in a way – like a state-funded organisation that is giving me a message that is actually very biased towards the present government,” he told us. “I don’t know, it really shocked me.
“You know I’ve heard stories from within the institution of the BBC, the various departments of the BBC, that yeah there is great bias there. It’s not a secret, it’s very, very biased and I think it needs to be called out. It’s about a spirit that permeates all that they do …”
The Good Wife star spoke out about BBC bias on Twitter earlier this summer after the broadcaster failed to report on a Lord Ashcroft poll putting support for independence ahead of support for the Union for the first time since 2017. The BBC defended the move, claiming its guidelines prevented it from reporting on individual polls as headline stories.
Speaking to The National, Cumming said that defence was an example of “arrogance” when it was clear the BBC had reported on individual polls on several occasions. At the time, he accused the broadcaster of “suppressing news” about independence.
Cumming – who has dual citizenship between Scotland and the United States – also said the lack of Yes voices invited onto the BBC’s flagship Question Time is “fascinating”.
“I just think, you know, even the stuff about Question Time, the lack of representation that pro-independence voices have had on Question Time when they come to Scotland is really fascinating to me too,” he explained.
“Like here with Trump, everyone’s a little exhausted and a little fatigued by it all, so when I do see something like that I do speak out about it.”
The BBC has always insisted its referendum coverage was fair and balanced.
To read the full interview, order our special indyref magazine at www.thenational.scot/shop.
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