Reply from BBC Audience Services re: reporting of Reading Chick-fil-A closure

Below is the content of the reply letter which I received from BBC Audience Services in response to my recent complaint about the way they reported the closure of the UK’s first Chick-fil-A restaurant in Reading, by a mob.

You can read my original complaint letter to them here.

Their reply is given below. As I said recently, so I say again: Judge for yourself whether you think the BBC really has been impartial over the way it has reported this story!

Mr Graham Harter
[address supplied]

21 November 2019

Reference CAS-[reference supplied]

Dear Mr Harter,

Thanks for contacting us with your comments on the following BBC News website article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-50108255

Please accept our apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

As with every story we cover, the BBC has no view on Chik-fil-A (sic) or the row over their Reading restaurant. Instead, it is our role to reflect a wide range of voices on the story so that readers can then make up their own minds.

We noted Think Progress reported the Chick-fil-A Foundation donated to three organisations which LGBT campaigners have claimed are hostile towards LGBT rights – they claim one of these organisations is the US Salvation Army.

Our report also included a statement from the UK Salvation Army, who stated it “strongly objected to being presented as homophobic or transphobic”.

Thank you again for getting in touch. Your complaint was made available to BBC News editors and senior management via a daily report which helps inform our ongoing work.

Kind regards,

Deborah [surname given]
BBC Complaints Team
www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

P.S. The hyperlink included in the above reply letter (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-50108255) was not the page about which my original complaint was made. My complaint concerned the related news story at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-50094551 (as you may see from my original article).

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