Carrie
Gracie on Channel 4 News.
Channel 4
News
Imagine brutally calling out your bosses for not paying
you fairly and still keeping your job.
That's exactly what happened to BBC journalist Carrie
Gracie, who is fighting to bridge the gender pay gap at the
British broadcaster.
It was an extraordinary week for the BBC, with women
backing Gracie and journalists interviewing their bosses on
television.
It's the BBC's worst crisis in years, but the
broadcaster remains a brilliant platform for free speech — even
if it inflicts self-harm.
Imagine publishing a brutal open letter complaining that your
company doesn't pay you fairly. Imagine then doubling down on
your claims in front of a powerful group of parliamentarians live
on TV. And imagine taking the fight to Twitter, detailing your
boss' attempts to appease you and thanking your supporters.
Now imagine walking away from these outbursts knowing that you're
not going to be fired anytime soon.
The notion is ridiculous, isn't it? Almost no employer would
stomach this kind of public lashing from a member of staff
without retaliating with an axe.
But the scenario above is not imagined. It happened this week at
the BBC and shows why the broadcaster is not just any employer.
BBC journalist Carrie Gracie threw a thunderbolt at her managers
last month by publishing a letter about her
efforts to secure pay parity with her male peers. She
accused Britain's biggest broadcaster of running a "secretive and
illegal pay culture."
The bombshell missive has made headlines in Britain for weeks,
turning a rumbling issue over the BBC's gender pay gap into the
broadcaster's worst crisis since children's TV presenter Jimmy
Savile was exposed as a prolific paedophile in 2012.
Gracie doubled down on her remarks in an emotional parliamentary
hearing on Wednesday, in which she told MPs of the Digital,
Culture, Media, and Sport Committee about her battle for equal
pay.
Carrie Gracie: Still 'in development' after a 30-year career
Gracie was appointed as BBC News' China editor in 2013. The
journalist was initially reluctant to take the job after she had
breast cancer twice and her daughter was diagnosed with
leukaemia. She was convinced, in part, because the BBC promised
to pay her the same as her male counterparts.
But when the BBC published the salaries of its stars last year,
Gracie was dismayed to discover that her two male contemporaries
were paid "at least 50% more" than her and another female
colleague of the same rank. When she raised the matter through an
internal grievance process, things only got worse.
Carrie
Gracie gives evidence to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Committee.
Parliamentlive.tv
Gracie, a skilled journalist with more than 30 years experience,
was told by the BBC that her salary was lower because she was
only "in development" in the China editor role, according to her
testimony. Covering its tracks, she said the BBC offered her back
payments of £100,000 ($141,000) to bridge the gap between her and
male peers.
It was "an insult to add to the original injury," Gracie said,
seething with anger, adding that it felt like a "tacit admission
of pay discrimination." Gracie then called out her bosses by name
and accused them of being dishonest and putting the entire
reputation of the BBC on the line.
"If we are not prepared to look at ourselves honestly how can we
be trusted to look at anything else honestly?" she asked, adding:
"If corporate centre take my compass away, I don’t know who I am
as a BBC journalist — if they don’t report the truth, how can
we?"
The BBC's most powerful executives were listening in to the
chastening hearing — and indeed, were asked to respond to
Gracie's evidence directly after she left the witness seat.
Gracie remained in the room and sat directly behind her bosses,
furiously scribbling notes. At one point, BBC Chairman Sir David
Clementi even turned in his seat and apologised to the
journalist. It summed up the humbling experience.
Gracie is not alone in the fight for equal pay
Gracie is not alone — 170 women at the broadcaster are
openly campaigning for change. It's an elite group too,
containing some of the BBC's biggest stars, including Mishal
Husain and Clare Balding. Some of them stood and cheered as
Gracie entered the parliamentary committee meeting to give
evidence this week. Others have backed her up in TV, radio, and
newspaper interviews.
Many of these interviews actually took place on the BBC.
To be clear: This is the BBC using its own airwaves, to
allow its own staff to tear strips off of its
own management — all in front of an audience of
millions.
In fact, Gracie's evidence was beamed live on BBC News and topped
many bulletins. And BBC executives actually went on TV to be
grilled by BBC journalists. Like Fran Unsworth for example, the
BBC's news director (and the woman ultimately responsible for
setting Gracie's salary), who was challenged spiritedly by Ben
Brown on the news channel.
Ben
Brown interviews as his boss, Fran Unsworth, live on BBC
News.
BBC News
Just stop for a moment to think about that. Put yourself in
Brown's shoes. He is live on TV, interviewing his boss as she
sits at the eye of a cataclysmic storm. Even for the most
seasoned journalist, that must be strange.
A platform for free speech
What makes this all the more extraordinary is that Gracie remains
employed by the BBC. Sacking her would of course only make things
worse for the corporation. But the exact opposite has happened —
she has, in effect, been promoted. Since publishing her letter in
January, she has filled in as a host of BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme, the biggest news
show in the country.
The irony was not lost on Gracie, who tweeted: "What other news
organisation would let you call it secretive and illegal on
#equalpay, + still let you front flagship show? Despite troubles,
#BBC IS GREAT."
She's right. The BBC is a peculiarly British anachronism: A near
100-year-old institution, funded to the tune of £3.8 billion by a
quasi-tax, with a mission to do three simple things: Inform,
educate, and entertain. It gets a lot wrong as the yawning chasm
of its gender pay gap shows.
But it gets many, many things right. Being a platform for free
speech, even when it constitutes an act of self-harm, is pretty
high on the list of good things about the BBC. And it's worth
remembering that as it toils through its latest crisis.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Business Insider.
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