the bbc digitally scrubbed pride pins off a university challenge contestant. starter for ten: why?

University of Leicester, for illustration. Photo: NotFromUtrecht, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

via the Leicester Gazette and Metro

Your starter for ten: what is so dangerous about a couple of Pride pins that the BBC would rather paint them out of a quiz show, frame by frame, than let them reach BBC Two?

The BBC's answer is a guideline. Here is what the students say happened. Two University of Leicester students, astrophysics student Samuel Carlier and history student Emmeline Hague-Wright, told the Leicester Gazette that their LGBTQ+ Pride pins were edited out of their University Challenge appearance. The pins showed the Progress Pride flag, the bisexual flag and a rainbow feather. The episode was due to air on Aug. 24, was pushed back twice, and finally ran on Sept. 7.

Carlier says he noticed his outfit "melting" into itself at odd moments, which is what happens when someone paints a badge out of moving footage. "Living in a liberal democracy and having the state broadcaster tell you 'we're editing how you look', seems very Orwellian," he told the Gazette. "If I had worn a rainbow shirt, would they have censored that? If the idea is to keep things impartial, where is that line in the sand?"

When he asked the BBC why, he says, a promised phone call never came, and he was eventually told to file a complaint on its website. He did. He says he has heard nothing since.

the call she expected

Hague-Wright's version is the one that stings. After an earlier episode drew transphobic abuse online, she got a call from the BBC and assumed it was about support. "I heard that they had received a lot of nastiness online from people and I thought they were going to call me to say 'we have support services if needed,' and that wasn't what I got at all," she told the Gazette. It was a call to say her feather was coming off.

"This entire delay has been because of a feather and two badges on a teammate that were basically impossible [for viewers] to see," she said.

what the bbc says

The BBC gave the same statement to the Gazette and to Metro: "In line with our editorial guidelines, we advise that no badges, flags, and emblems or symbols are worn or visible during filming, along with clothing with obvious branding or slogans." If they are not removed, it said, the producers and the BBC decide on edits together. It told both outlets the delays had nothing to do with the pins. ITV Studios, which makes the show, told the Gazette that University Challenge "is made in accordance with the BBC Editorial Guidelines requirements for impartiality." The university declined to comment to the Gazette.

So a rainbow is now an impartiality problem. That would be easier to believe as a neutral rule if it were not the second time this month. On Oct. 10, Strictly Come Dancing digitally removed "Protect the Dolls" from a T-shirt Bethany Antonia wore in rehearsal footage, a move the BBC also called "in line with our editorial guidelines," according to the Press Association and PinkNews. This is also the broadcaster that walked away from Drag Race UK mid-season. Once is a guideline. Twice in a month is a pattern.