Looking back over the thirty years I worked for the FT, I still cannot believe how lucky I was to have worked for an organisation that believed there was such a thing as journalistic integrity. It meant that however difficult the assignment we were expected to get our facts right, and on stories of particularly sensitivity, there were hierarchical checks and balances in place that went via down-table sub-editor to the editor, as well as legal ones, with a lawyer at the end of a phone, or if needs be, at our desk. We also had a motto, which we sometimes printed on our mast head- beyond fear or favour. I cannot remember an instance when an investigative piece I wrote or collaborated on did not count on our editor’s support if, as often happened, the subject tried to stop publication, not because it was wrong but because it was embarrassing.
I share this by way of reflecting on the plight of the BBC, the only other media organisation for whom I have always felt a similar respect for. I believe that George Entwistle had no option but to resign-although the buck should not stop there. Eventually others in management and those most directly involved not just in the Newsnight report leading to a former Tory treasurer being wrongly accused as a child abuser, but for whatever ‘cover up’ is proved in the case of Jimmy Savile.
Those who argue that they cannot understand why the BBC has been pillored for not naming a suspect and other TV companies have escaped for naming at least one Tory, and producing lists of others , forget the BBC’s special status as a public corporation funded by the taxpayer.
However it would be wrong to jump to the conclusion that the BBC has lost all moral authority, with the assumption that its mistakes are the product of an endemically flawed organization. This is not, I would argue, an equivalent to News International and Hackgate.
Newsnight had produced some brilliant coverage and interviews over the years. BBC drama and entertainment and sports coverage at its best is without equal, as are its regular news programmes. When I think BBC I think-inter alia- Paxman, Dimblebys, Crick, Robinson, Peston(exFT), Flanders(exFT) Simpson. In recent days, the BBC’s coverage of the US election night and today’s Cenotaph memorial service show, in the midst of its crisis, that it can still hold its head high as the best public network in the world-one that in the past has known when to stand up for what is right and just and true, in defiance of political pressure. The BBC continues to be an essential part of our democracy, rightly criticized when it gets things badly wrong, but also deserving to be judged from a longer -term perspective.
PS The original version of this blog wrongly named George Entwistle. My apologies to him , the BBC, and my readers , and thanks to Paul for pointing the mistake out. Unlike my time at the FT, I do not have subs to pick me-only readers!
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