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Viewers who waived their TV license fees in response to a day of controversy for the BBC said they felt the company had "sold its soul". On Friday, Match Of The Day presenter Gary Lineker asked to stop hosting the show, Question Time presenter Fiona Bruce was accused of trivializing domestic violence and claims the BBC pulled an episode of a new series of Sir David Attenborough fearing a political backlash. Among several Twitter users who posted photos showing they had waived their monthly liens for their TV license fees was learning and disability support worker Simone Gordon.
“I have felt for some time that the BBC shows a government bias in their news coverage,” the 42-year-old from Lincoln told the PA news agency.
“Gary Lineker's treatment this week confirmed what I feared.
'Fiona Bruce describing Stanley Johnson on Question Time last night beating his wife 'just once' seemed further evidence of this.
"The BBC's decision not to broadcast the (Sir) David Attenborough episode in case it offended right-wing viewers was the last straw.
"I had to cancel my TV license or I would feel like I was endorsing your show."
The BBC defended Bruce, saying he was giving the background to domestic abuse allegations made against Stanley Johnson, the father of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, also stating that "there was no sixth episode of Sir David's Wild Isles".
Ms Gordon said she had set up a direct debit for the amount of money she was paying for license fees to go to the RSPB, a charity that helped produce the disputed sixth episode of Sir David's show Saving Our Wild. Isles, which is about restoring biodiversity in the UK.
"I think the BBC has sold its soul: the once great public service broadcaster is, in my view, nothing more than the most right-wing British government spokesperson ever to hold office," said Ms Gordon, a Labor voter.
"Shame on them. The BBC is no longer, in my opinion, impartial.
In my opinion, the BBC is no longer impartial.
Angela Riley, manager of an outdoor nursery from Edinburgh, Scotland, shared a Guardian article about the controversy surrounding Sir David's documentary series on Twitter, saying: "That's it - monthly TV license canceled until there is a new order.
"I can no longer continue to fund in good faith the slow but relentless attack on the integrity of the BBC by this (Conservative) government."
The 42-year-old, who grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, told the PA news agency that Friday's events went "a step too far."
“I lived through years of apartheid in South Africa and saw with my own eyes how state media was used for political purposes and to arouse hatred among its citizens,” he said.
"You can never minimize the influence and responsibility of the media, to use (CNN anchor) Christiane Amanpour's phrase, for being 'truthful, not neutral.
"Unfortunately, for me it is a step too far. The last nail in the coffin.
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