Syria exposé shows the BBC at its best

Superb piece of journalism on the BBC News from Lyse Doucet. A horrible story, of some appalling mass murder in Syria – told calmly and bravely; unpartisan, questioning and undoubtedly exposing the team to danger, for our benefit. The very best of journalism. You can see it here.

Actually, the piece which followed Doucet’s wasn’t bad either – a fine report from Damian Grammaticus on the Chinese economic slowdown as seen from the ghastly city of Wuhan.

I mention this because the corporation isn’t simply a handy base for collective noncing, overpaid middle managers and political bias. I write about that stuff often enough, probably too often, because if the BBC were to go there would be no conduit in this country for the sort of journalism I mention above; stuff like that simply would not be seen. And you’re kidding yourself if you think it would. And by and large, with all those caveats and slings and arrows we fling at it, on balance the BBC does stuff like that rather regularly, and nobody else does.