Editing BBC controversies (section)

==Early years==
===1926 general strike===
{{primary sources|section|date=March 2021}}
In 1926, the [[General Council of the Trades Union Congress]] (TUC) called a [[1926 United Kingdom general strike|General Strike]] to prevent wage reductions and worsening conditions for 1.2 million locked-out coal miners. [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] politicians such as party leader [[Ramsay MacDonald]] and [[Philip Snowden]] criticised the BBC for being "biased" and "misleading the public" during the strike.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{cite web |title=The General Strike |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/bbcandgov/pdf/generalstrike.pdf |publisher=BBC |access-date=26 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220030515/http://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/bbcandgov/pdf/generalstrike.pdf |archive-date=20 February 2012}}</ref>

Prime Minister [[Stanley Baldwin]] was coached by [[John Reith, 1st Baron Reith|John Reith]] during a national broadcast about the strike which he made from Reith's house. When Ramsay MacDonald asked to make a broadcast in reply, Reith supported the request. However, Baldwin was "quite against MacDonald broadcasting" and Reith refused the request.<ref name="guardian180814">{{cite web |last1=Higgins |first1=Charlotte |title=BBC's long struggle to present the facts without fear or favour |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/aug/18/-sp-bbc-report-facts-impartial |website=The Guardian |access-date=19 May 2020 |date=18 August 2014}}</ref>

Baldwin's government blocked the BBC from broadcasting statements about the strike by the Labour Party and TUC leaders. When [[Philip Snowden]], the former Labour [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]], wrote to the ''[[Radio Times]]'' to complain about the BBC's treatment of the unions, Reith wrote that the BBC was not totally independent from the government, which had imposed some constraints on what the BBC could do.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> [[Randall Davidson]], Archbishop of Canterbury, wished to broadcast a "peace appeal" to call for an immediate end to the strike, renewal of government subsidies to the coal industry and no cuts in miners' wages. Reith denied his request because he believed such a speech would be used by [[Winston Churchill]] to take over the BBC. Churchill wanted to use the BBC as a government tool during the strike.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> Reith wrote in his diary that the government "know they can trust us not to be really impartial".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sinclair |first1=Ian |title=Uncovering the ignorance of the BBC's big beasts |url=https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/uncovering-ignorance-bbcs-big-beasts |website=Morning Star |access-date=26 March 2021|date=23 March 2021}}</ref>

A post-strike analysis carried out by the BBC's Programme Correspondence Department reported that of those polled, 3,696 commended the BBC's coverage, whilst 176 were critical.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/>

===Between the wars===
Since 1927, there have been arguments over impartiality at the BBC. In 1927, under a Royal Charter, the BBC became a public entity for the first time – with requirements including the need for impartiality and for staff not to express opinions on controversial subject matters.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Prior to World War II, [[Sir John Reith]] excluded Winston Churchill from the BBC airwaves.<ref name="Robinson">Nick Robinson, '[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9606384/Nick-Robinson-Winston-Churchills-bitter-battle-with-the-BBC.html Winston Churchill's bitter battle with the BBC]', ''The Daily Telegraph'' (14 October 2012). Retrieved 24 February 2018.</ref> At the time of the [[Munich Agreement]] of 1938, Churchill "complained that he had been very badly treated...and that he was always muzzled by the BBC".<ref name="Robinson" />

===1930s to Cold War: MI5 vetting===
{{main|"Christmas tree" files}}
From the late 1930s until the end of the [[Cold War]], [[MI5]] had an officer at the BBC vetting editorial applicants. During World War II 'subversives', particularly suspected [[Communist Party of Great Britain|communists]] such as the folk singer [[Ewan MacColl]], were banned from the BBC. The personnel records of anyone suspicious were stamped with a distinctively shaped green tag, or "Christmas tree;" only a handful of BBC personnel staff knew what the 'Christmas trees' meant.<ref>{{cite news | last = Smith| first = David | title = BBC banned communists in purge |work=The Observer | date = 5 March 2006| url = http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1723776,00.html | access-date =28 December 2008| location=London}}</ref>

===1930s: Commercial radio controversy===
Because the BBC had become both a monopoly and a non-commercial entity, it soon faced controversial competition from British subjects who were operating leased transmitters on the continent of Europe before World War II, to broadcast commercial radio programmes into the United Kingdom. [[John Reith, 1st Baron Reith|John Reith]], who had been given powers to dictate the cultural output of the BBC, retaliated by leading the opposition to these commercial stations. Controversy spilled over into the press when the British government attempted to censor the printing of their programme information. The pressure was created by the success of these stations.{{Citation needed|date=October 2008}}

===1930s onwards: Broadcasting jazz===
In her biography of her father, ''My Father: Reith of the BBC'', [[John Reith, 1st Baron Reith|John Reith]]'s daughter [[Marista Leishman]] said that he banned the playing of [[jazz music]] on the BBC and that he wrote in his diary that "[[Negermusik|Germany has banned hot jazz]] and I'm sorry that we should be behind in dealing with this filthy product of modernity."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hodgkins |first1=Chris |title=BBC Charter Review Consultation Response |url=https://www.chrishodgkins.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/BBC-Charter-Review-Consultation-Response-6th-October-2015.pdf |website=CHRIS HODGKINS |access-date=28 September 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Leishman |first1=Marista |title=My Father: Reith of the BBC |date=2008 |publisher=Saint Andrew |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0715208571}}</ref>