The BBC has again exposed itself to criticism for its treatment of Christian characters after EastEnders’ Dot Cotton was ridiculed for objecting to a gay kiss.
The publicly financed broadcaster reportedly received 150 complaints about the episode shown on 7 October, in which Dot Cotton comes across two men kissing on a park bench and asks them to stop.
She is shown getting to grips with an mp3 player, while the two male characters snigger at her efforts to engage with modern technology.
After seeing the men kiss she says: “please remember, the Lord ain’t the only one with eyes.”
Dot Cotton has been used as an example of the way in which Christian characters and their views are often presented as old fashioned and ridiculous by the media.
The scene was shown just weeks after revelations that the BBC and other broadcasters are lobbied by ‘gay rights’ groups to include more homosexual storylines.
Defending the episode, the BBC said: “EastEnders aims to reflect real life, and this means including and telling stories about characters from many different backgrounds, faiths, religions and sexualities.
“We approach our portrayal of homosexual relationships in the same way as we do heterosexual relationships.
“In this instance, Christian [the name of one of the homosexual characters] is enjoying the first flush of romance and we’ve shown him being affectionate with his new boyfriend in the same way any couple would.
“We also aim to ensure that depictions of affection or sexuality between couples are suitable for pre-watershed viewing.
“We believe that the general tone and content of EastEnders is now widely recognised meaning that parents can make an informed decision as to whether they want their children to watch.”
Several other examples of media bias have emerged in recent weeks.
Soap storylines
Stonewall’s Gary Nunn recently revealed to The Guardian: “One of our key priorities is to promote fair coverage of lesbian and gay people in the media and we work with programme makers to reflect this.”
Sky News
In September, Sky News journalist David Blevins told a Christian blog that evangelical Christianity is often “dismissed out of hand” by journalists serving a secular liberal ideology. He said groups like The Christian Institute face an “uphill struggle” for fair coverage.
James MacMillan
James MacMillan, conducter of the BBC Philharmonic orchestra, criticised the liberal bias of the media last month. He said: “These are people who speak only to themselves and have convinced each other that the rest of the country thinks just like them. They are wrong.”
G P Taylor
Last month a Christian best-selling author said he was blacklisted by the BBC. G P Taylor says a BBC producer told him the publicly-funded broadcaster could not be “seen to be promoting Jesus”.
Stephen Glover
Attacking the BBC’s over-the-top coverage of the recent Collider experiment in Geneva, the Daily Mail’s Steven Glover wrote: “The BBC represents a materialist, mechanistic consensus which has rejected God, and deludes itself that science is capable of providing a complete explanation of existence.”