How times change. The fallout from the Iraq war has revealed the BBC and the government as sworn enemies. The corporation’s journalists stand accused of a new affinity for tabloid journalism–bias, sloppy reporting habits and factual errors. They’re fighting back, but the charges have cost Auntie the nation’s confidence. A recent poll reports that more than 30 percent of Britons say their trust in the BBC has fallen. And as for Prime Minister Tony Blair, so for the BBC: credibility is the foundation of its authority. Says David Cox, a television producer studying the BBC’s failings for the Tory party: “It is the last great British institution, after Parliament and the monarchy, to lose the country’s faith.”
Feeding the public’s disquiet is an embarrassingly public examination of BBC practices. For the past five weeks a clutch of BBC bosses have passed through the witness box in the Hutton Inquiry. So too has reporter Andrew Gilligan, the journalist for the flagship “Today” program who broke the original story. The emerging picture is mixed. BBC bosses emphatically backed their reporter even before studying the evidence. Gilligan’s written notes of a vital interview are missing. It’s unclear whether key accusations were put to the Defence Ministry before broadcast, and straightforward mistakes went out on the air. Last week Gilligan apologized in court for sending an e-mail to M.P.s identifying David Kelly as a fellow BBC journalist’s source, and admitted to a series of errors while sticking by the essential points of his story.
Media watchers see the Gilligan affair as just the latest round in a contest that began when Labour won its landslide victory in 1997. In one corner: Alastair Campbell, Blair’s former director of communications, a veteran of the aggressive tabloid world, determined to thump home the party’s message. In the other: a newly assertive BBC, willing, like other media organizations, to take on the role of opposition left vacant by the enfeebled Conservatives.
Collision was inevitable. To Campbell, the BBC was abandoning its unique role as a purveyor of impartial news to become something like the hated right-wing press: always ready to prefer an enemy’s word to officialdom. During the Afghanistan war of 2001, Campbell complained to the BBC: “The Taliban can make a claim which is reported straightaway, but by the time we are able to provide accurate information the story has moved on.”
The BBC will admit to a change of style. The tradition of deference is long dead: as far back as 1986, the corporation crossed swords with the government over its coverage of the U.S. bombing of Libya. More recently, fierce competition in the 24/7 news market has forced a further transformation. These days the BBC must keep pace with a score of global rivals. And with haste comes a growing risk of error. Have standards slipped? Says Justin Lewis, a journalism professor at Cardiff University: “If there’s a problem at the BBC, it’s a bigger problem everywhere else.”
At issue, however, is more than just accuracy. What annoys the BBC’s critics is the perceived blurring of boundaries between newsgathering and newsmaking. The worst offender, they charge: BBC Radio’s “Today” show, a must-listen program that attracts 6 million listeners a day. The Gilligan story is only one example of the program’s success at nettling sensitive politicians. “We wanted a more intelligent approach on ‘Today’ than getting in a cabinet minister, putting him in a chair and saying, ‘How are you?’,” says Rod Liddle, the show’s editor from 1998 to 2002. The result is powerful broadcasting that critics claim is tainted by liberal prejudice and editorializing.
Under its present charter, the corporation enjoys enviable independence from government. Its generous $4.3 billion annual income is assured by an annual levy on all TV viewers. But in 2006 the charter and funding arrangements are up for renewal. The BBC can ill afford to start negotiations with a damaged reputation and hostile politicians baying for regulation or a complete revamp of public-service broadcasting. Time for old Auntie Beeb, like Blair himself, to focus on rebuilding trust.
