The Corporation, never a great friend to Ireland, is now suffering attacks from many different sides. PAUL DONOVAN reports
The BBC has been under fire over recent months, seemingly caught between a rock and the Tory government.
The question of impartiality surfaced over the tweet by presenter Gary Lineker condemning the government's immigration legislation. The row escalated, as the highly paid sports presenter refused to back down. Lineker was then taken off Match of the Day, with his colleagues then acting in solidarity, refusing to appear either. The boycott included commentators, as well as pundits, resulting in a much shortened programme of just goal highlights going out.
The row has since been settled, with Lineker back on Match of the Day.
The whole spat though was a real own goal by the BBC, bringing fierce criticism of chairman Richard Sharp, who had donated to the Conservative Party and facilitated an £800,000 loan for former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The impartiality of Director General Tim Davie was also questioned, given his previous record as a Conservative Party member and candidate for office.
Then, there is non-executive BBC board member, Robbie Gibb, the former director of communications for former Prime Minister Theresa May and brother of Tory MP Nick Gibb.
The question then seemed to be: were the BBC cowering before a Tory government or had the Corporation been colonised by the Tories, given the make up of senior management?
The free market Tories do have ideological objections to the BBC, seeing it as one of the last remaining big nationalised industries.
The approach to attacking the BBC has been one of a thousand cuts.
So the licence fee was frozen and is now being phased out altogether. The cost of providing free licences for over-75s shifted from the government to the Corporation.
More cuts are being demanded.
But the big area of contention is not dramas like EastEnders and Happy Valley or nature programmes like Springwatch and David Attenborough's documentaries but news.
The BBCs journalism and news coverage has always been contentious, with politicians.
Most will remember the big battles with the Blair Labour government over the Iraq war, the dodgy dossier and the death of scientist David Kelly.
That saw director general Greg Dyke and chair of the BBC, Gavyn Davies both having to resign, following the Hutton inquiry.
The relationship with government has always been a tense one, never more so than on the subject of Ireland.
The BBC played a key role over the years in the Troubles in upholding and reinforcing the British Government's propaganda model of the warring tribes, with the British army in the middle trying to keep the peace. The idea that the army was also a combatant in the conflict rarely came into the lexicon.
That is not to say that the BBC has not had some outstanding individual journalists, who have done fine work.
Peter Taylor is one such individual. He recently made the documentary: MI5 and the IRA - Operation Chiffon about the role of an MI5 operative in ensuring there was a peace process.
There are those in the BBC who measure impartiality in news coverage, according to the amount of offence that can be caused to all sides. So if republicans, loyalists and the security forces are all angered by something in the Northern Ireland conflict context, then the coverage must be about right.
A similar approach applies to politicians, so if Tories, Labour and the rest are unhappy about the news, they must be getting it about right.
In their book The War Against the BBC, Patrick Barwise and Peter York found that BBC usually bends towards the government of the day, more so when it is a Tory government.
Indeed, the Tories objection, beyond the ideological question, mentioned earlier, is difficult to fathom.
After all they have been in power for the best part of the past 100 years that the BBC has been around. They can hardly be said to have suffered due to biased coverage.
Despite all the slings and arrows, the BBC remains the most trusted source of news for the public. Some 44 percent of the public look to the BBC for impartial news, next is ITN with 10 percent. The best of the papers is the Guardian, with 3 percent. The Corporation's role during the COVID pandemic underlined the importance of this role.
The Corporation has huge global reach and has a not insignificant role in projecting British values (or should that be propaganda) worldwide.
Neither, though, should anyone underestimate the powerful lobby that opposes the BBC. Led by the Murdoch press plus the Mail and Telegraph titles, there is constant onslaught against the Corporation.
There is practically an industry, including many right wing think tanks, whose sole purpose is to attack the BBC.
The Corporation is at a difficult time in its long history. Under attack from many sides, it often seems to lack a backbone when it comes to putting up resistance.
The recent Lineker episode was a case in point, with many of the I'll judged decisions coming at the behest of right wing newspapers, who over a short period could not get the story off their front pages.
Lineker had plenty of support himself. So the spineless approach of senior BBC management probably alienated all sides.
Moving forward, the BBC cannot afford many more such debacles. The sharks are circling.
What the BBC needs to do is draw on the massive support it has among the public. Maybe more actively mobilise that support sometimes. Remember all those popular programmes across genres that attract millions every day.
It also needs to be aware of its inherent tendency in news to lean toward the right, in the name of impartiality.
Recognise that right wing Tory governments have been no friends of the Corporation over the years. Maybe, also recognise a number of Tory cuckoos in the BBCs senior management nest.
When all is said and done the BBC does contribute much to the life and culture of this country. It would be a poorer place without it — balanced or not.
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See More: BBC, Impartiality, Journalism
