BRIAN READE: ‘BBC is not excellent – however when any fraud can rant on social media, it stays important’
The editing of Trump’s speech on Panorama was terrible journalism, says Brian Reade, but killing it off would be a grave mistake in the world we live in, and we’d be far worse off
Irony didn’t just die this week – it was hung, drawn and disembowelled. How else to describe the stream of attacks on the BBC’s integrity and honesty by people you wouldn’t let look after your cat for fear they’d nick its milk?
Boris Johnson led the charge for the Beeb’s demise by calling a badly edited clip about Donald Trump’s insurrection-inciting speech in 2021 a “scandalous fabrication”. This from a proven liar whose scandalous relationship with the truth has cost Britain dearly.
Nigel Farage loudly bemoaned the BBC’s “institutionalised left-wing bias” when its scrupulously even-handed editorial policy allowed Leave UK’s deceptions far too much credibility. This was during the Brexit referendum, and the BBC’s politics shows now give Reform far more airtime than its five Westminster seats deserve.
Former editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, popped up on news channels to question the integrity of BBC journalism. This from a journalist who kept a lie going for decades that people like me killed and urinated on our fellow football fans at Hillsborough.
And the daddy of all the truth-evaders, Donald Trump, threatened to sue the BBC for a billion dollars for misrepresenting his Big Lie about the “stolen” US election that caused the Capitol Hill riot. A man convicted of 34 falsehood felonies, who is currently granting unconditional pardons to 77 of his disgraced lackeys who were in league with him to overturn that 2020 election result.
And that was only the tip of the right-wing iceberg aimed at sinking the world’s most trusted news brand and one of the few British institutions still respected outside these shores. Indeed fingers have been pointed at Tory sympathisers high up in the BBC, in league with right-wing Daily Telegraph, who orchestrated the hatchet job that led to resignations and left the corporation reeling.
The BBC is far from perfect. The editing of Trump’s speech on Panorama (and possibly Newsnight) was terrible journalism and swift action should have been taken. It has to be quicker to own its mistakes, especially on accuracy, because its hard-earned reputation for impartiality is far too precious to be tossed away through isolated lapses in competence.
At a time when every charlatan, fraud, conspiracy theorist or racial supremacist can broadcast their opinions in the guise of news on social media or libertarian channels like Fox and GB News, it’s vital to keep the BBC alive. How badly would we miss its superb dramas, comedies and documentaries, which contributed to a record £2.2billion in commercial sales last year. And what a travesty it would be to lose its journalism, which is consumed globally every week by 450 million people because they trust its unrivalled impartiality. Impartiality seen whenever the BBC is in the news and its reporters ask the hardest questions of their own bosses.
The BBC were right to apologise to Trump but they would also have been right to demand an apology from his press secretary who posted on X: “@BBCNews is dying because they are anti-Trump fake news.” On the basis that the BBC is the polar opposite of fake news and it is far from dying.
But if Farage’s Reform, or a Reform/Tory coalition, wins the next election, the greatest broadcaster in the world will be killed with a lusty venom. And the UK will be far poorer for its death.
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