According to the Mail Online, UK’s Education Secretary, Michael Gove has accused the BBC of ageism, saying that he’d rather watch Selina Scott (left) or AbFab‘s Joanna Lumley on TV than Holly Willoughby (right) or Fearne Cotton.
Many people believe that the BBC has a long record of age discrimination, the most recent incident being the firing of Countryfile‘s Miriam O’Reilly after the BBC had announced plans to “revamp” the show. O’Reilly alleges that she had been told to “be careful about those wrinkles” while on the program, and was eventually fired in favor of younger staff members. A tribunal has ruled that O’Reilly was, in fact, the victim of age discrimination and is expected to receive a £150,000 payout from the BBC, which has already apologized to her and offered her her job back.
Selina Scott herself spoke out about the BBC’s apparent age discrimination two years ago, saying even then that she lamented the lack of older female anchors and reporters on the BBC’s news channels, saying: