Greg James has defended the BBC’s impartiality rules, describing them as an “imperfect operation” because the corporation is run by humans. The Radio 1 Breakfast Show presenter, 39, who earns an estimated £425,000, said in an interview that he respects the BBC’s mission to remain impartial.
“You can’t have 5,000 presenters spouting personal opinions all day,” he told The Times. In his new book, James writes about a “surge in far-right lunatic parties”, but noted he could not express such views on his radio show. “There is a lot of unkind, racist stuff flying around and people feel scared,” he said.
James acknowledged that the impartiality policy becomes more complicated when presenters appear on other platforms, citing Rylan Clark’s controversial discussion of immigration on ITV’s This Morning. James said he would never debate a topic he wasn’t knowledgeable about, adding that his speciality is being “aggressively fun, aggressively silly and aggressively welcoming”.
The interviewer also referenced Gary Lineker’s departure from the BBC after a social media post about Zionism. James commented: “Yes, it’s imperfect and will always be, but that’s because the BBC is a bunch of humans running a huge corporation.”
In his book, James reveals his starting BBC salary at age 21 was £80,000, compared to a local radio offer of £18,000. He said he chose to disclose this to take ownership of the salary debate. James, who has been at Radio 1 since 2007, admitted he is “paid handsomely” but would do the job for nothing.
