Oh dear. It seems that the BBC is once again setting the news agenda – via tales of its own incompetence. The Corporation has spent days battling accusations that it aired a doctored clip of a speech by President Trump in a Panorama documentary back in January 2021. The White House Press Secretary has called the Beeb ‘100 per cent fake news’ while Kemi Badenoch has demanded that ‘heads must roll’. This comes after months of furious denunciations from both the political left and right about the Corporation’s Gaza coverage…
Now it seems that heads have, finally, rolled. For Tim Davie, the Director-General of the BBC, has tonight announced his resignation, alongside Deborah Turness, his senior colleague and CEO of News. Davie told staff that he has been ‘reflecting on the very intense personal and professional demands of managing this role over many years in these febrile times’ and says that ‘I want to create the best conditions and space for a new DG to come in and positively shape the next Royal Charter.’ Funny how that coincides with the current controversy, eh? Turness meanwhile admitted that ’while mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.’ Let’s see if the public agree with that…
But will two scalps be enough? The double whammy comes after a leaked memo from Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the broadcaster’s editorial standards committee. He left the role in June, raising the question: who else from the Beeb knew? Davie had done five years: a veritable veteran in the most thankless task in British broadcasting. His now-former boss Samir Shah is expected to make a grovelling apology to the Culture Select Committee tomorrow.
Will that be enough for the Corporation’s many critics?
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