Nick Robinson has been forced to defend BBC Radio 4’s Today programme for its decision to interview the rightwing US commentator Ann Coulter after a backlash against her appearance.

The Today programme presenter said the BBC invited her on to the programme to “explain and scrutinise” Donald Trump for retweeting far-right videos and his response to criticism of his actions.

Robinson tweeted after the show: “For those criticising BBC Radio 4 Today for interviewing Ann Coulter – we did so to reveal and explain & scrutinise the source of the Trump tweet.”

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Coulter is one of 45 people that Trump follows on Twitter and it is thought he may have retweeted the videos after seeing them on her feed.

She was interviewed by Robinson on Today about the president sharing three videos posted by the deputy leader of the far-right group Britain First and then fighting back against criticism from Theresa May, the British prime minister.

Coulter said Trump could not be expected to check the biography of people he retweeted and that “the video is the video, it’s not a faked video”.

She also defended his response to criticism from the UK, saying: “I think he has only given as good as he gets. I think he has been verbally attacked from the mother country for a lot longer than he has been attacking Britain, starting with that petition to ban him.”

Robinson called for Coulter to “answer the question” about whether Trump should have criticised May, and Coulter responded by telling Robinson that she had a “little tip for him” – that he should spend time on Twitter and “figure out” that people retweeting videos do not research the biographies of the people who originally shared them.

The BBC has strict impartiality rules which mean it has to consider a range of views when broadcasting news. Presenters and journalists such as Robinson have revealed that the BBC can spend hours agonising over how to guarantee impartiality before broadcasting a story.



If the BBC receives a complaint – as seems likely after the Coulter interview – then its executive complaints unit could consider again whether the organisation met impartiality and accuracy rules with the broadcast.

“I have seen the costly, wasteful, debilitating hours that are spent parsing this or that phrase into how to answer a complaint about an item that was broadcast weeks if not months earlier,” Robinson said in speech in September when he called for the BBC to be more transparent about its dedication to impartiality.

“Let’s not leave the editorial debate we had on the metaphorical cutting room floor along with the footage we didn’t use but pin at least some of it up and then – when complaints do follow – point to what we said and did at the time.”

The BBC’s interview with Coulter reignited the debate about how the broadcaster approaches impartiality. In the past it has been criticised for giving too much weight to contested or even false claims – such as during the Brexit referendum and when debating climate change.

Remainers have complained that the BBC gave too much airtime to leave arguments in the run-up to last year’s vote and did not do enough to question claims that Britain paid £350m a week to the European Union which could be used to fund the NHS instead.

James Harding, the outgoing director of news at the BBC, dismissed these claims in an article for the Guardian last September. He said the BBC “should be open to those who may challenge a consensus” at all times.

Coulter also appeared on Channel 4 News on Wednesday evening and ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Thursday. However, her appearance on Today – which has a weekly audience of more than 7 million people – generated the strongest reaction.

The BBC was criticised on social media for choosing Coulter to defend Trump and also for broadcasting a defence of the US president and the videos.

Sarah Ditum, a columnist, said: “Ann Coulter on Today. If they’re interviewing people who retweet racist shit, there’s a guy I went to school with who lives in Spalding now they should talk to.”

Chris Bryant, the Labour MP, added: “Sometimes I’m really taken aback by an interview. Ann Coulter was hectoring, mendacious and full of spite. I fear for the world when people like her have the ear of the world.”

Coulter has appeared on the BBC before. In 2006 she appeared on Newsnight to promote her book Godless: The Church of Liberalism. Jeremy Paxman started the interview by saying: “Your publishers gave us chapter one, Ann Coulter. I’ve read it. Does it get any better?”

• This article was amended on 1 December 2017 because an earlier version said that Today has a daily audience of more than 7 million people. That is a weekly, not daily, audience figure.

