DISPATCHES FROM THE MINISTRY OF TRUTH: BBC altered victims quote so she didn’t misgender her alleged rapist.

Last September the ACLU posted a quote from the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg talking about gender equality. Only the ACLU had decided Ginsburg’s actual quote wasn’t quite woke enough for modern tastes so they replaced the pronouns and removed the word “woman.”

Yesterday the London Times reported that the BBC went one step further than the ACLU. According to the report, the news outlet replaced the pronouns in a victim’s quote in order to avoid having her statement misgender her alleged rapist.

The BBC changed the testimony of a rape victim after a debate over the pronouns of her transgender attacker, The Times has learnt.

The woman referred to her alleged rapist as “him” but insiders said that her words were changed to avoid “misgendering” the abuser in an article on the corporation’s website.

The BBC article replaced every reference to “he” or “him” with “they” or “them”. A source said the quote was the subject of heated debate prior to publication. Some journalists argued that the quote should remain intact, while others said it should reflect the trans woman’s preferred she/her pronouns.

Winston Smith could not be reached for comment. But couldn’t there have been a setup paragraph to alert those readers who are likely to dive for the fainting couch about what’s coming next rather than alter quotes?

To be fair though, the Beeb’s gotta Beeb: 1984: How BBC ‘inspired’ George Orwell’s infamous torture cell Room 101.

Flashback: ‘A Powerfully Corrosive Internal Culture.’