Naga Munchetty was ‘very distressed’ to find herself at the centre of the news when she called out President Donald Trump over his comments about four congresswomen of colour.
In 2019, the 74-year-old commander-in-chief tweeted his Democrat rivals – Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley – should ‘go back’ to the countries ‘from which they came’ when they condoned his immigration policies.
Sat beside Dan Walker on BBC Breakfast in July 2019, Naga explained why the president’s words carried so much weight.
‘Everytime I’ve been told as a woman of colour to “go home”, to “go back to where I’ve come from,” that was embedded in racism,’ Naga said.
‘Now I’m not accusing anyone of anything here but you know what certain phrases mean.’
Naga was backed wholeheartedly by her BBC Breakfast colleagues, but was initially found to have broken the BBC’s impartiality guidelines by the broadcaster’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU). This decision was, however, overturned by then director-general, Tony Hall.
More than a year later, the 45-year-old said she ‘hated’ being the news rather than reporting on it.
‘We are not the story, we are facilitators. It’s not what I’m interested in. I found it very distressing, to be completely honest,’ she explained in the latest issue of Radio Times.
Still, and rightly so, she doesn’t regret venting her frustration on air at all.
Following criticism over the BBC’s decision to reprimand Naga, Mr Hall praised the ‘exceptional journalist and presenter’.
‘Racism is racism and the BBC is not impartial on the topic,’ he said. ‘There was never a finding against Naga for what she said about the President’s tweet.’
BBC Breakfast airs weekdays at 6am on BBC One.
Credit: Original article published here.The post Naga Munchetty ‘very distressed’ by Donald Trump racism row on BBC Breakfast appeared on My Celebrity Life.