How did it go so badly wrong?
One minute the BBC is heralded as the country’s – and perhaps the world’s – most trusted source of news.
The next it is mired in accusations of poor standards of journalism and political bias.
The latest scandal is the revelation that its flagship investigative programme Panorama, which has earnt an international reputation for its outstanding exposes, spliced together two parts of US President Donald Trump’s speech to give the impression he explicitly encouraged the Capitol Hill riots of January 2021.
It wasn’t the BBC’s first mistake.
There were the questions asked about the broadcaster’s handling of shamed former news presenter Huw Edwards. It was also ruled to have committed a serious breach of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official.
Then there was the coverage of Bob Vylan’s comments about the IDF at Glastonbury Festival and the complaints against former MasterChef presenter Greg Wallace.
But Panorama was the final straw. Accusations of institutional bias rained down. The dam burst. BBC director general Tim Davie and the CEO of News Deborah Turness resigned and the turmoil surrounding the broadcaster was whipped up to a new level of frenzy.
So what went wrong? The irony is the BBC, so adept at reporting the most controversial and high profile news, was unable to handle its own controversy.
Certainly mistakes had been made but nothing which could not have been explained, no storm which would not have passed.
But it was the management – or rather mismanagement – of these situations which led to the downfall of its leaders and potential wholesale change in the institution.
For a week after the Trump speech editing on Panorama was exposed, nothing was said. Nothing. No statement. No explanation. No apology.
The BBC’s failure to act led to a loss of faith in the broadcaster as the wolves circled at the door.
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Mistakes happen, that’s life. But it is how you deal with those mistakes which is all important.
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