BBC's responds to my sexism complaint ref Olympic coverage

This is the BBC's response to my suggestion Gary Lineker's interview with Nicola Adams was sexist on the basis of his remark 'well, you've got a lovely smile.' I would argue such statements reduce the stature of important and successul women to reseamble that of a two year toddler gurning at an ice-cream.

Obviously, the response is written to make the sender sound like a total, time-wasting weird. And so I am. I'll draft my counter response later in the week.

Dear Ms Burgdorf

Reference CAS-1624699-R3YC5D

Thanks for contacting us about our coverage of ‘Olympics 2012’.

I understand you were unhappy as you felt that Gary Lineker said to Nicola Adams that she has a lovely smile and you found this inappropriate.  I note that you found the statement to be sexist and believe that he would have never said the same thing to a man.

This was an off the cuff remark by Gary Lineker and certainly no offence was intended.  Nicola Adams had become well known for her smile during the Olympics with many media outlets referring to her as ‘golden smile’ or the ‘smiling assassin’. 

I can assure you that the BBC have the utmost respect for women’s sport and we believe this was shown throughout our coverage of women’s events in the Olympics.

However I appreciate that you found Gary’s comments to be sexist therefore please be assured that I’ve registered your complaint on our audience log.  This is a daily report of audience feedback that’s made available to many BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, channel controllers and other senior managers.

The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content.

Thanks once again for taking the time to contact us.

Kind Regards

Claire Jordan
BBC Complaints
www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

NB This is sent from an outgoing account only which is not monitored. You cannot reply to this email address but if necessary please contact us via our webform quoting any case number we provided.