Lord hall’s legacy: what lessons need to be learned by the bbc? | thearticle

In his first speech as BBC Director-General on October 8, 2013 Tony Hall said, “I want to ensure that when we do make mistakes they are caused by trying to serve our viewers, not by looking

after ourselves. And when we do make mistakes – and we will – let’s own up to them quickly, learn from them, and move on.” Almost eight years later, this does not read well. Thanks to Lord

Dyson’s report and Thursday night’s _Panorama_ it is clear what went wrong at the BBC between 1995-96 and since. The bigger question is: what are the lessons that the BBC needs to learn if

it is to regain the trust of its audience? First, deal with bias. Lord Grade, former Chairman of the BBC, was right when he said on the _Today _programme that the BBC needs to appoint an

independent board to hold the BBC’s journalism to account. He mentioned three particular areas where the BBC’s coverage has fallen short: the Middle East, especially, Israel; Brexit; and

recent election coverage. In all three cases, the BBC’s news coverage, especially its flagship programmes, has been guilty of bias.  This has alienated a large part of the BBC’s audience.

Viewers have voted with their feet. A report by MPs has found that around 200,000 households a year have stopped paying their licence fee. That is over five hundred households a day. More

and more people feel that the BBC no longer speaks for them. It’s not just biased, it’s “woke”: its values are those of a Left-wing metropolitan elite. The Culture Wars are becoming

increasingly important in British politics, and on a number of key issues from Windrush and Black Lives Matter to policing here and in America, it’s clear where the BBC’s news producers and

programme editors stand.  Second, the state of BBC governance. What has really shocked people is not so much Bashir’s duplicity but the cover-up: by Steve Hewlett, then editor of 

_Panorama_, Tim Gardam, Head of Weekly Programmes at BBC News, and, most serious of all, Tony Hall, Director of BBC News and Current Affairs. And, perhaps worse still, the failure of the BBC

governors to understand the seriousness of what Bashir had done.  Curiously, the _Panorama _documentary didn’t mention a number of crucial figures. John (now Lord) Birt was then

Director-General and the late Sir Marmaduke Hussey was the Chairman of the Board of Governors. Both were key figures at the BBC at the time but neither were mentioned. And who was Head of

News and Current Affairs at the time? Something else that was not mentioned was the rise and rise of all three BBC executives named in the programme in contrast with the fate of the whistle

blower, Martin Wiessler.  But this is not the only failing of BBC governors over the years. Under their watch, the greatest Music and Arts department in the world was dismantled and no one

on the Board did anything to stop it; BBC history and science programmes have been dumbed down; look at the loss of ambition at the BBC by comparing huge series from the 1960s like _The

Great War _or Kenneth Clark’s _Civilisation _with the way the BBC covered the centenary of the First World War or the more recent _Civilisations_. The great and the good have just stood by

and done nothing to stop this creative collapse. Alasdair Milne famously described the BBC governors as a “bunch of amateurs”. He was right then and he’d be right now.  Eighteen months ago,

I wrote a piece for _TheArticle _asking whether Lord Hall was the worst ever Director-General of the BBC? It will be interesting to see in the aftermath of the Dyson report whether Hall’s

years as Director of BBC News and Current Affairs and his dismal reign as DG will be reassessed.  Finally, there is the question of BBC News and Current Affairs. Over the last 50 years there

has been a succession of controversies and run-ins with governments. In 1971 there was a run-in with the Labour leadership over a documentary called _Yesterday’s Men. _According to the

official History of the BBC web page on the incident, the Labour politicians were “effectively tricked into taking part in a programme that would ridicule them”. On 30 January 1984,

_Panorama_ broadcast _Maggie’s Militant Tendency_. Neil Hamilton MP sued for libel, the BBC settled out of court. Later that year, footage of the so-called “Battle of Orgreave” on 18 June

1984 had been filmed by a crew from the BBC. When this appeared on that evening’s BBC news bulletins, it was edited and broadcast out of chronological sequence, falsely showing pickets

throwing stones at the police and the police subsequently carrying out a mounted charge. In 2012 George Entwistle resigned as Director-General after Savilegate and controversy over a

_Newsnight_ report which falsely implicated Lord McAlpine in the North Wales child abuse scandal.  It is time for the BBC to sort out its problems with governance. It needs to radically

overhaul its News and Current Affairs department – a new head to replace Fran Unsworth, sort out the political bias and the “woke” mindset. To alienate politicians, viewers and, above all,

the Royal Family is not a good look for the BBC. It’s time the BBC thought about how to win friends. Amol Rajan and John Ware showed the way forward. Admit it when you’ve got something wrong

and put it right. How hard is that?  A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s

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