The Today programme presenter has told the Radio Times that the BBC has recruited people with 'broadly liberal views'
The BBC was not "sufficiently sceptical" in its coverage of the immigration debate because it had "bought into the European ideal," according to its best-known radio interviewer.
John Humphrys said the BBC had previously overlooked the potential negatives of unchecked immigration, but had since redressed the imbalance in its coverage.
"We weren't sufficiently sceptical – that's the most accurate phrase – of the pro-European case. We bought into the European ideal," the Today programme interviewer told the Radio Times.
"We didn't look at the potential negatives with sufficient rigour … I think we're out of that now. I think we have changed."
In an interview likely to reignite allegations of a leftwing bias at the BBC, the veteran broadcaster also said the corporation had been "grotesquely over-managed" and recruited people with "broadly liberal views".
He told the magazine "the BBC has tended over the years to be broadly liberal as opposed to broadly conservative for all sorts of perfectly understandable reasons.
"The sort of people we've recruited – the best and the brightest – tended to come from universities and backgrounds where they're more likely to hold broadly liberal views than conservative."
The observation is likely to be leapt upon by politicians and rightwing sections of the media hostile to the public broadcaster. But Humphrys is the latest in a series of senior BBC figures publicly to question the corporation's commitment to impartiality on controversial topics including Europe and immigration.
Nick Robinson, the BBC's political editor, said in January that the broadcaster had made a "terrible mistake" by shying away from a proper debate on immigration in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
In publicity interviews for his BBC programme The Truth About Immigration, Robinson said BBC news executives "feared having a conversation about immigration, feared the consequence", worried that a full debate might "unleash some terrible side of the British public".
Last year Helen Boaden, the BBC's former head of news, conceded that the broadcaster had a "deep liberal bias" on the subject when she took up the post in 2004.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Radio Times, Humphrys said he had voted for "most political parties" and accused BBC management of leaving the Today programme "as pared down as it's possible to get".
"There are too many of them," said Humphrys, 70, of BBC managers. "I think they think that. I think Tony Hall [the director general] thinks that – I don't know, I haven't asked him, but I think he thinks that.
"Over the years we've been grotesquely over-managed, there's no question. They're now getting a grip on it. A lot have gone. I think more need to go."
Humphrys said senior BBC figures were sympathetic to his calls for more resources at Today, which he described as the broadcaster's most important programme.
"But the problem was that when the previous regime was faced with having to cut its budget under huge pressure, and reasonably so because of the way we saw money was being chucked around – in some cases irresponsibly, big payoffs to people who shouldn't have had them – you look at your own programme and you think, 'Bloody hell, we could have done with that'."
Humphrys, who has presented Today since 1987 after years as a BBC foreign correspondent in the US and South Africa, welcomed the recent arrival of Mishal Husain as Today's second female presenter in a lineup that also includes Sarah Montague, Justin Webb, Evan Davis and James Naughtie.
"It's terribly simple. Obviously, not all men are the same as all women but they should have equal opportunities and the idea that you say, 'Well, we've now got two [female presenters], that's enough,' is daft," he said.
Humphrys brushed aside any suggestion of tension with Husain, whom he introduced on BBC2's Celebrity Mastermind as a "newsreader and very good-looking woman" before asking whether she did her job only because she was attractive.
"I was making the point that it helps in the newsreading business – and this isn't controversial, you only have to switch on the telly – to be young and beautiful and highly trained. She's a proper journalist," he added. Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 hours ago.
The BBC was not "sufficiently sceptical" in its coverage of the immigration debate because it had "bought into the European ideal," according to its best-known radio interviewer.
John Humphrys said the BBC had previously overlooked the potential negatives of unchecked immigration, but had since redressed the imbalance in its coverage.
"We weren't sufficiently sceptical – that's the most accurate phrase – of the pro-European case. We bought into the European ideal," the Today programme interviewer told the Radio Times.
"We didn't look at the potential negatives with sufficient rigour … I think we're out of that now. I think we have changed."
In an interview likely to reignite allegations of a leftwing bias at the BBC, the veteran broadcaster also said the corporation had been "grotesquely over-managed" and recruited people with "broadly liberal views".
He told the magazine "the BBC has tended over the years to be broadly liberal as opposed to broadly conservative for all sorts of perfectly understandable reasons.
"The sort of people we've recruited – the best and the brightest – tended to come from universities and backgrounds where they're more likely to hold broadly liberal views than conservative."
The observation is likely to be leapt upon by politicians and rightwing sections of the media hostile to the public broadcaster. But Humphrys is the latest in a series of senior BBC figures publicly to question the corporation's commitment to impartiality on controversial topics including Europe and immigration.
Nick Robinson, the BBC's political editor, said in January that the broadcaster had made a "terrible mistake" by shying away from a proper debate on immigration in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
In publicity interviews for his BBC programme The Truth About Immigration, Robinson said BBC news executives "feared having a conversation about immigration, feared the consequence", worried that a full debate might "unleash some terrible side of the British public".
Last year Helen Boaden, the BBC's former head of news, conceded that the broadcaster had a "deep liberal bias" on the subject when she took up the post in 2004.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Radio Times, Humphrys said he had voted for "most political parties" and accused BBC management of leaving the Today programme "as pared down as it's possible to get".
"There are too many of them," said Humphrys, 70, of BBC managers. "I think they think that. I think Tony Hall [the director general] thinks that – I don't know, I haven't asked him, but I think he thinks that.
"Over the years we've been grotesquely over-managed, there's no question. They're now getting a grip on it. A lot have gone. I think more need to go."
Humphrys said senior BBC figures were sympathetic to his calls for more resources at Today, which he described as the broadcaster's most important programme.
"But the problem was that when the previous regime was faced with having to cut its budget under huge pressure, and reasonably so because of the way we saw money was being chucked around – in some cases irresponsibly, big payoffs to people who shouldn't have had them – you look at your own programme and you think, 'Bloody hell, we could have done with that'."
Humphrys, who has presented Today since 1987 after years as a BBC foreign correspondent in the US and South Africa, welcomed the recent arrival of Mishal Husain as Today's second female presenter in a lineup that also includes Sarah Montague, Justin Webb, Evan Davis and James Naughtie.
"It's terribly simple. Obviously, not all men are the same as all women but they should have equal opportunities and the idea that you say, 'Well, we've now got two [female presenters], that's enough,' is daft," he said.
Humphrys brushed aside any suggestion of tension with Husain, whom he introduced on BBC2's Celebrity Mastermind as a "newsreader and very good-looking woman" before asking whether she did her job only because she was attractive.
"I was making the point that it helps in the newsreading business – and this isn't controversial, you only have to switch on the telly – to be young and beautiful and highly trained. She's a proper journalist," he added. Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 hours ago.