There is a controversy at the BBC over a correction made by presenter Martine Croxall on air when she changed a reference to “pregnant people” to “women.” The network later received 20 complaints and agreed that Croxall had violated network policies. (For full disclosure, I previously worked as the legal analyst for BBC).
In the segment, Croxall began by stating, “London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has released research, which says that nearly 600 heat-related deaths are expected in the U.K.” She then added “Malcolm Mistry, who was involved in the research, says that the aged, pregnant people — women, and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions.”
When she said “women,” she seemed to briefly pause in frustration in making the change.
According to the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU), the brief pause and facial expression conveyed bias and a “personal view”:
“The phrase ‘pregnant people’ was followed by a facial expression which has been variously interpreted by complainants as showing disgust, ridicule, contempt or exasperation.
Even accepting this explanation, however, the ECU considered the facial expression which accompanied the change of ‘people’ to ‘women’ laid it open to the interpretation that it indicated a particular viewpoint in the controversies currently surrounding trans identity, and the congratulatory messages Ms Croxall later received on social media, together with the critical views expressed in the complaints to the BBC and elsewhere, tended to confirm that the impression of her having expressed a personal view was widely shared across the spectrum of opinion on the issue.”
I can understand that the network does not want on-air staff to convey their personal views on divisive subjects, particularly controversies that the network is covering. What I was less clear on was the standard being enforced here.
There is no BBC rule that I know of requiring the use of “pregnant people” as opposed to women. So, if that is true, the violation was the brief pause and facial expression. If Croxall had simply made the change without the facial expression, would she be in compliance with network standards?
Croxall clearly disagreed with the nomenclature used by the writers, as many do. The fact that the BBC received 20 complaints is hardly surprising and the reliance on such complaints as proof of meaning is a dangerous practice. It is now common for individuals and groups to file a flurry of complaints against anyone who holds opposing views on issues like transgender rights or identity. The United Kingdom has eviscerated free speech with criminal prosecutions and investigation for years. Flash mobs form quickly to pursue dissenting voices such as J.K. Rowling, who maintain that these policies undermine the progress on women’s rights.
Notably, BBC initially supported Croxall and told complainants that Croxall’s script change was “done for clarity and was in no way meant to be disrespectful. We’re satisfied it was duly accurate and impartial, and in line with the BBC’s editorial guidelines.” As more complaints were filed, the network changed its position.
I understand that BBC does not want presenters to express personal views on such subjects on air, but it has remained uncomfortably vague on how presenters address such issues. Croxall clearly felt that “pregnant persons” was a clumsy and inaccurate expression. Is BBC saying that this is the correct way to speak of pregnant women or can presenters change the language, as did Croxall? The current position seems the worst of all options for BBC to remain silent on the correct term while finding a presenter in violation for how she corrected it.
You worked for them and they did not learn a thing. I taught polysigh in college for 52 years. I know how you must feel. Bill Hill Roanoke College, Salem, VA
Perhaps you could post a POLYSIGH tutorial right here on the Turley blog. I for one would be very interested in learning exactly what that is.
Merriam-Webster
people
1 plural : human beings, persons: such as
a plural : human beings as a group
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Of course, there is no such thing as “pregnant people.”
People cannot be pregnant.
“People” includes men.
Men cannot be pregnant.
Only women can be pregnant.
The phrase must be “pregnant women.”
The presenter was correct.
Brennan, Strzok, Page subpoenaed as part of federal Russiagate probe: Sources
Law enforcement sources told Fox News Digital that up to 30 subpoenas related to the probe will be issued in the coming days
By: Brooke Singman – Fox News ~ November 7, 2025
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/brennan-strzok-page-subpoenaed-part-federal-russiagate-probe-sources
Justice Department issues flurry of subpoenas in fresh inquiry into Trump-Russia probe: AP sources
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has embarked on a fresh investigation into one of President Donald Trump’s chief grievances, issuing a flurry of subpoenas related to the U.S. government’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, multiple people familiar with the matter said Friday.
By: ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER ~ November 7, 2025
https://apnews.com/article/trump-russia-justice-department-fbi-origins-investigations-c6348cb2f1d2ea42f1d143f2ac94fe55
“…the people are nothing but a great beast….”
“I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.”
– Alexander Hamilton
_________________________
If you don’t like the product, don’t buy it.
Move along, folks, nothing to see here.
“The brief pause and facial expression.”—Croxall committed a FACE-CRIME in addition to her thought crime (“personal view):
“According to the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU [ i.e., O’Brien]), the brief pause and facial expression conveyed bias and a ‘personal view”….
Croxall [e.g.,Winston] was trying to restrain a brain that knows the truth. The demonstration of “double think,” revealing BBC’s official response (tampering with reality), is eerily and uncannily performed, exactly as Orwell describes:
“…the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies—all this indispensably necessary . Even in using the word double think it is necessary to to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink, one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth” (1984. Harcourt, 2003, p. 290).
The controversy over who can be “Knocked Up” might lead to an awakening in the UK
Yeah, that can be a problem. I had an English friend who was shocked by the response of an American woman when he said he would come by “and knock her up next week.” Of course he meant visit by knocking on her door; not the other.
On other business:
The Turley Board of Trolls have approved Darren Smith’s $1 Trillion Dollar Pay Package.
($100 Billion per year for 10 Years). Dependent upon reaching annual goals and mile markers.
The Boards stated that “Darren is worth every penny of it” (But please don’t tell him that the Government no longer mints pennies).
A Go Fund My Salary fund has been set up to help the Blog reach it new yet un-realized deficit expenditure (per accrual accounting methods).
The Board will except old Pennies where allowed.
LAME ANON
Like that K, just like My President … LAME-Duck
BIDEN?? A cannibal ate his uncle!
Hi Darren, I emailed Professor Turley about a problem — can you please help out. Thanks. — Concerned Citizen
Testing a correction.
The controversy is pregnant with possibilities.
The British Jihadist must be laughing theirasses off knowing it will be sooner than later before they take over the country from a nation of weak woke and stupid people
Such is the world…
Have a wonderful weekend one and all. Go for a walk if you can. It’s still autumn before the cold of winter. Enjoy the crisp air and sky and whatever is beautiful.
“[We gave you] a [restricted-vote] republic, if you can keep it.”
– Ben Franklin
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You couldn’t.
Animal rights, activists, protest, that “pregnant person” is insufficient. A more accurate term is pregnant creature.
In Other News, “BBC Announces that References to ‘Men’ be Changed to ‘Blue Balls Capable Persons”
That would be an improvement. Must add to their style book.
Help
Humana Advantage part “C” keeps robo calling that it’s time for a Colorectal screen.
The bait is zero dollar copay.
this is what chemical castration looks like ☝️☝️☝️☝️
Bloomberg Wall Street Week: November 7th 2025
This week, can Congress delegate its authority over trade and tariffs to the president? The Supreme Court questioned the Trump Administration’s argument that a statute passed by Congress gives the president the power to impose worldwide tariffs. But if the Court disagrees with the administration, who pays – and how much? …
By: David Westin – Bloomberg Wall Street Week ~ November 7th 2025
Audio:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2025-11-07/bloomberg-wall-street-week-november-7th-2025-podcast
Video:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2025-11-08/wall-street-week-mamdani-s-win-tariffs-fight-video
SCOTUS Bloopers:
Ketanji Brown Jackson Face-Plants
Supreme Court meltdown! Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson shocks everyone with her confused, fact-free performance during the hearing over President Trump’s tariff authority. Mixing up Nixon and Lincoln, missing basic constitutional points — it’s beyond belief. Larry O’Connor breaks it all down, exposing the chaos on the bench and what it means for America.
By: Larry O’Connor ~ November 7, 2025
https://youtu.be/abrelDsC–k
“Affirmative Action Jackson!”
An aside on the underlying ‘expert’ who claims there will be 600 heat related deaths in the UK.
Pure BS! I would believe 6,000 cold related deaths but not 1 heat related death unless someone got too close to a heater trying to get dry and warm.
Oh yes, the BBC needs reminding that ‘pregnant people’ actually are women as we humans know them.
Have totalitarian space aliens unfamiliar with human biology actually taken over the BBC? Seems like.
Hey there’s an idea! Instead of transsexuals how about the entire class as transformers? They can go back and forth, man to woman and back again!
Anon– “They can go back and forth, man to woman and back again!”
Some do for real.
I’m old enough to remember when they were transvestites and cross-dressers.
I was off by a lot. A study for Parliament concludes that there could be as many as 50,000 annual cold related deaths in the UK.
https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0752
That is a bit more than colder European countries so I imagine the failed NHS socialized medicine is a factor.
But the BBC being what it is their priority is to find deaths due to ‘global warming.’
It could be that ‘global warming’ is sort of responsible for the cold deaths. The UK surge to ‘green’ energy has made it too expensive to keep many homes warm,
“pregnant person” is alliterative, nicely rolling off the tongue. It is also obviously unambiguous.
This controversy is a tempest in the Mat Hatter’s teapot.
It may be alliterative, but it sounds stupid and cringey.
Kansas Elder, we need more poetry in our lives.
I’m not sure “pregnant people” is poetry, but even if we assume it is, the point here is the adverse employment action for factually correct and accurate reporting, as well as the BBC changing its position from fact-based endorsement of reality to totalitarian-based upholding of complaints from viewers who dislike reality. BBC wants to determine truth by counting noses. And this is from a media outlet which purports to have standards and stature. BBC has become a joke.
‘Pregnant Person’
DAVID : “It is also obviously unambiguous.”
Actually the expression was devised expressly for the purpose of being ambiguous so that a pregnant woman who is trying to transition to male can be called a man.
The BBC is here demanding ambiguity.
I warned you earlier that muddled words lead to muddled thoughts.
You should have paid attention.
Young — “Be called” is different than “is”.
David–
That’s the problem. You are almost there on your journey to reality. The Left thinks changing language changes biology.
That’s why we see Democrats insisting that biological males ‘called’ females be allowed to compete against women in sports. “They ARE women!” they insist.
Biological males ‘called’ females are winning trophies and scholarships rightly intended for females.
Genuine female sports categories are being destroyed along with the dreams of actual competitive women. And some women are getting hurt. An accomplished female boxer thought she could compete with a man. One or two punches and she wisely stepped out of the ring. She said something like, “I have never been hit so hard in my life’! Most women, fortunately, never truly know the strength difference between men and women. But they suspect a little of it. Look who is always asked to open the pickle jar.
Funny that the Democrats who insist that women transitioning to men are actual men never wonder why those ‘men’ don’t sweep trophies in male sports. It’s always the other way around.
Muddled language doesn’t muddle biology.
We all know only women can become pregnant. Saying so is completely unambiguous.
Democrats don’t know it. That’s why they insist men can be pregnant and they put Tampon dispensers in boys’ bathrooms.
Young
They are very confused. Life is not going to be kind to them.
Off Topic:
James Comey’s Own Notes Prove He Knew The Russia Hoax Was A Clinton Plot
It was always implausible that Comey was unaware that Russiagate was a Clinton smear — and now his own notes prove that untrue.
By: Hans Mahncke ~ November 07, 2025
https://thefederalist.com/2025/11/07/james-comeys-own-notes-prove-he-knew-the-russia-hoax-was-a-clinton-plot/
If Arctic Frost Perpetrators Don’t Go To Jail, Conservatives Will
To conservatives, Arctic Frost is a scandal. To Democrats, it’s their new baseline. And the only way to stop it is to punish them.
By: Rachel Bovard ~ November 06, 2025
https://thefederalist.com/2025/11/06/if-arctic-frost-perpetrators-dont-go-to-jail-conservatives-will/
The Media (Dems) are already busy diverting your attention of the Jack Smith/Arctic Frost revelations to (Old News) Trump’s retaining Classified Documents in Mar-a-Logo.
The Media (Mainstream Networks) are completely in the controlling hands of the Left’s narrative.
Say No More! (Alex Soros & the new Mayor of NYC Zohran Mamdani)
https://www.davidstockmanscontracorner.com/say-no-more/
Pregnant person is a misogynistic construct brayed by the politically congruent (“=”). Two fathers and a womb on a farm, too.
*. Oh well, she might have said–pregnant men and women.
Clue–> if you’re pregnant most likely , most likely you’re a woman 😲. 99.9% probability? Yes, trans men are women. CENSOR! CALL THE CENSOR! Bruce Jenner knows he’s not a woman but does Medea?
Why would a trans man be having sex with a man? Boggles the mind.
Feminine gender simulants are homosexual males with a heterosexual fetish realized through physiological corruption.
Ok.
That’s an interesting idea, n.n. but intersex are a different subject. So homos are basically fetishist.
Ok, enough thinking for today and have a good day. ☺
How about we quit using the terms “trans” and “transexual” which have a vaguely pseudoscientific ring to them. Whether they’ve had their weenies cut off or not, these freaks are simply “Female Impersonators.” They used to be part of a circus sideshow along with the fat lady, the tattooed man and the bearded lady. Of course nowadays, walking down any street and we see plenty of fat ladies and tattooed men (and women). The mental illness that creates female impersonators is the only one that seem to not want intensive psychotherapy but rather worldwide acceptance of their insanity.
Is what she said inaccurate? No. I dare you to find a “pregnant person” who is NOT a woman. Is it profane? No. Is it biased or insulting to women? No. I would venture that “pregnant person” is more offensive because it erases women from a function that is wholly female and literally defined a female.
Thank you Prez Trump & ICE
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BREAKING: ICE just arrested these illegal aliens, members of a South American theft ring who have been attacking families in a series of violent armed home invasions across Texas.
In one invasion a child was raped as her parents pled for it to stop. Democrats can go to ***
Fox news
Diversity, Equivocation, and Indifference (DEI). Rape is a queer sexual orientation and a taboo in polite company. #NoJudgment #NoLabels
Glad it was previous!