Minnie’s Musings

They have indeed! The BBC DG and Head of News have been allowed to resign (not sacked, you note). But I am curious as to the position of the commissioning editor of Panorama from whence the two key scandals of this year have emerged.

An otherwise interesting and heart breaking documentary on the children of Gaza was blighted by editorial impartiality (though it would take a seriously determined ostrich to wilfully ignore the terrible trauma being inflicted on a generation of Palestinians).

And why an incendiary speech clearly inciting violence on 6th January needed splicing is beyond me. Foolish if not downright idiotic.

The Board needs to go in my none too humble opinion. They have dealt with this poorly and ineffectively. I am now listening to a bloke I was once on a student newspaper with, talking about what should be happening now. Failure of governance. Yup.

But he has also made an important point. Namely, a huge news organisation will make mistakes. It’s inevitable. Where the senior managers have fallen short is in the way this has been dealt with. And that has been farcical.

As the Royals have recently found. The response has been more of a problem than the original “crime”. The fizzing of journalistic wrath was palpable on last night’s news when two senior correspondents were quizzed by Jane Hill. Their reputations are on the line and they have been failed by the powers that be.

Personally my measure of whether the BBC is getting the balance right is whether both sides of any debate are squeaking. They are. And that , if there is anything remotely resembling a light at the end of the tunnel, is a good thing.