In the resignation statement of Tim Davie over the weekend, the BBC Director General stated “In these increasingly polarised times, the BBC is of unique value and speaks to the very best of us.” …. “It helps make the UK a special place; overwhelmingly kind, tolerant and curious.”
Tim Davie seems a well-meaning individual, but this statement appears starry eyed and nostalgic; the public would wish his statement were actually the case, rather than simply good intentions. It also seems to underline that wanting something to be true is a poor substitute for making it so. André Gide said, “Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it….”.
It is therefore the nature of truth-seeking that it is an ongoing effort to continue to look for information which provides a rounded and complete picture of what constitutes the real facts of a case.
The BBC has been accused at various times of promoting one side of an argument or supporting one party over another, which is a distortion of the truth or a ‘spin’ – presenting an information set which gives an impression of the truth but missing an essential balancing set of information that would lead most reasonable viewers to an entirely different conclusion. It has also been accused of not disclosing that those individuals, presented as non-partisan in their opinions, have profound conflicts of interest to a neutral position.
Its main defence has been that both sides of the political spectrum will accuse it of bias depending on what is convenient for their own agenda. This is cynical and disingenuous, though, in the face of steady narrative of obvious and verifiable evidence supporting a persistent drift away from acceptable professional standards.
The Trump video scenario has raised the accusation of a national broadcaster actually manipulating footage to create a news story which tells of a speech which in timbre and specific detail never actually happened. This is fundamentally and profoundly dishonest. This goes well beyond the allegation that journalists are unprofessional or biased, it is simply fake, confected propaganda and anathema to professional journalism and its long-standing code of conduct. For the departing DJ to call such an incident a ‘mistake’ is factually incorrect, because of its deliberateness and remains in denial of the facts. ‘Whoops’ does not cover it.
The BBC and BBC News in particular, has always been a globally recognised seeker of the full, unvarnished truth; a pillar of professional journalism exercising its craft without fear or favour and regarded as the benchmark for other international news organisations. To have fallen so far from this position is a betrayal of the paying public and also of the very thing that it says it seeks to protect – the truth. It should be the angel on our shoulder saying persistently ‘you may like X to be the case, but Y is the truth’. Holding us to a higher, more exacting standard.
Our country has always been thought of as a bastion for reasoned and measured free speech; in the febrile era of conspiracy theorists, fake news and social media pile-ons, it is true now more than ever that we need our national broadcaster as a force for good. “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on” said Winston Churchill, somewhat before this truism was supercharged by the internet.
The BBC is absolutely essential to underpin debate with factual information, which is fundamentally trustworthy and presented in a way that accurately represents the whole truth as far as is practicable. The BBC need not fear anyone if it simply does its job, let alone ‘enemies’ referred to by its departing Director General.
What change is required at the BBC to make this the case again? And will that change happen before or after the public further loses patience and state funding is removed?