An extraordinary thing to have published in a major newspaper, even one as blatently biased as the 'Guardian':
The resignation of the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, over accusations of bias comes as a shock...
Only in the sense that the ones at the top of any corporate shit heap usually cling on by their fingernails, Jane…
...and leaves a gulf at the top of the corporation when it needs leadership most. Davie stressed that the decision was his alone – neither the board, nor even many of those who led the coordinated attack among rightwing press and politicians expected it.
’We’d have got away with it if not for you pesky kids rightwingers’ eh?
Leave to one side for now the direct allegations about specific failures of BBC coverage, and the BBC’s own baffling inability or unwillingness to defend itself over the past week.
How exactly can it defend itself when the evidence is there for all to see?
But the row obscures the context that explains what is, at the heart of the matter, a political campaign against the BBC that could act as a textbook example of how to confuse and undermine the kind of journalism that is, at the very least, aiming for impartiality in a sea of spin and distortion.
Aiming...yet missing the target by a country mile. That's not incompetence, that's deliberate.
None of this is to say that the BBC has not made mistakes. At the very least, the Panorama documentary appears to have included a bad and misleading edit of an hour-long Trump speech, which is unacceptable even if that speech was subsequently found to have encouraged insurrection. The BBC is expected to apologise on Monday over the Trump edit. That should have been enough.
For The Donald? No. And it wouldn't be enough for me either.
Given the sheer volume of the content it airs and criticism it receives, the BBC can sometimes be forgiven for not wanting to stir passions further. But by spending days insisting that it did not comment on “leaked documents”, the corporation has simply looked weak and cowardly, just when it needs to be robust and brave.
Because it is, like all bullies, weak and cowardly when it faces stiff opposition.
These are difficult times for the BBC. About to enter into negotiations to renew its charter after more than a decade of licence-fee cuts, it is also caught in political and economic headwinds. Johnson’s threat to cancel his licence fee comes after 300,000 more households did so over the past year.
And this is merely going to increase the rate of withdrawal.
This article is so extraordinarily bad that the 'Guardian has seen fit to add a disclaimer:
Jane Martinson is professor of financial journalism at City St George’s and a member of the board of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian Media Group. She writes in a personal capacity
Translation: 'Please don't sue us too Mr President!'
1 comment:
Julia, you deserve a medal for reading the Gridiron. The King has given himself plenty, perhaps he will give you one of his.
Post a Comment