Thought for the Day explicitly excludes non-religious contributors.
The BBC should move away from biased religious programming. That should begin with a rethink of Thought for the Day.
The BBC has a long history of pro-religion bias in its output, which is typified by Thought for the Day.
Thought for the Day is a daily slot on BBC Radio 4's flagship news programme, Today. For nearly three minutes, religious leaders offer "reflections from a faith perspective on issues and people in the news". Nonreligious people and leaders of less popular religions, no matter how well-respected their views, are not allowed to contribute.
Despite being within such a prominent discussion slot, Thought for the Day is outside the programme's editorial control. This means there is no right to reply when the slot is used for political or religious proselytising.
- Fewer than one in five British people think BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day should exclusively feature religious content.
- Religious radio programmes are the least popular and least well received according to the BBC's own research.
Public apathy towards Thought for the Day is even shared by Today's former presenter, John Humphrys, who described the slot as "inappropriate" and "deeply, deeply boring" in 2017. His colleague Justin Webb has also criticised it.
Reforming Thought for the Day to include speakers of any religion or belief would improve overall quality, make it relevant to Today's audience and remove the unjustifiable discrimination. Contributors should be picked without reference to their religious or non-religious identity.
There is a place for high quality, critical religion and belief programming on the BBC – but not one-sided promotion of religion.
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Latest updates
Help turn Thought for the Day into a “philosophy slot”
Posted: Thu, 24 Sep 2015 12:39
The National Secular Society has backed calls for BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day slot to be converted into a "philosophy slot", open to non-believers and believers alike.
The proposal has been put forward on Open Democracy's Our Beeb website – an online platform for debating the nature and future of public service broadcasting.
As part of its "100 ideas for the BBC" series, Philosopher Nigel Warburton writes: "My idea for the BBC going forward is that it should transform the rather tired 'Thought for the Day' into a philosophy slot reflecting on wider issues raised by recent news. That would wake a lot of people up."
According to Warburton: "The BBC, and particularly BBC radio, does an excellent job presenting philosophy in interesting ways to a large audience."
However he says that it "doesn't mean it's doing everything that it could".
NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans welcomed the suggestion and strongly encouraged NSS supporters to vote for the idea, which will be submitted to the Government's consultation on the future of the BBC if it attracts enough support.
He said, "We have long called for the BBC to open up Thought for the Day to non-religious voices or to scrap the slot, this is an exciting way of refreshing it and removing the bias against the non-religious that currently exists.
"The hopelessly outdated Thought for the Day segment offers an exclusive religious perspective during primetime, which deliberately excludes non-religious voices. This is a very welcome suggestion and we hope the BBC will give it the consideration is deserves."
Vote here to turn Thought for the Day into a philosophy slot.
BBC Trust: Religious radio programmes are “least popular” and “least well received” – but we won’t change them
Posted: Thu, 20 Aug 2015 16:46
A consultation on speech radio by the BBC Trust has found that religious programmes are the least liked and least well received radio shows, but stated that the BBC has no plans to change them.
The BBC Trust, the governing body of the BBC, has a "responsibility to get the best out of the BBC for licence fee payers" and conducts an "in-depth review of each of the BBC's services."
In research which included a public consultation on speech radio, (stations like Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra and Radio 5 live), the BBC Trust found that "programmes on religion … are the least popular offering from the station's programming in terms of claimed listening" with just 15% of Radio 4 listeners tuning in to religious programmes, compared with 91% who listen to "in-depth factual programmes".
In addition, programmes on religion are the "least well received" of all Radio 4 programmes, with "just under two thirds of Radio 4 listeners (63%) rating them as good."
Despite this finding, the report states that "Radio 4 is well aware of its listeners' range of views on this subject and has no plans for change to its output at present."
NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans said "it is extraordinary that such a critical review could result in no action being taken. What was the purpose of conducting a public consultation and review, if the findings are to be ignored?"
The National Secular Society submitted a response to the consultation arguing that "the BBC devotes too many of its resources to the provision of exclusively religious programming, particularly when research has shown that very few people listen to it."
Mr Evans said that the central assertion of the NSS submission has now been "confirmed by the BBC Trust's own research."
The NSS also took the opportunity to raise our objections to the current model of Thought for the Day, and suggested that the programme be "reformed to incorporate nonreligious voices."
The BBC Trust sidestepped this issue by stating that Radio 4 "already brings contributors from different faiths to Thought for the Day", not addressing the suggestion about the programme featuring nonreligious contributors.
Additionally, the review said that "several respondents call for the secularisation" of Thought for The Day, "although a substantial number of listeners maintain that religion does have a place on the programme."
Mr Evans added, "To have a slot in the middle Radio 4's flagship news and current affairs programme, reserved only for religious speakers, to make sometimes very contentious points which go completely unchallenged, is unjustifiable. It demonstrates an unhealthy and anachronistic deference to religion unworthy of Britain's public-service broadcaster."
The NSS recently raised concerns that religious programmes are effectively 'off-limits' from criticism.
