What is it with the BBC and Reform UK? Those of us who habitually stick up for the BBC are having a hard time of it right now.
It seems all news headlines must by decree mention that Nigel Farage’s latest self-made party is changing the face of British politics. And if that gurning, nicotine-hued visage is now the face of British politics, God save us, everyone – as Tiny Tim almost says in A Christmas Carol.
Every setback for Keir Starmer is read out like the last rites for Labour, while every small step forward for Reform UK is proclaimed from the rooftops as a massive victory.
This has been going on for a while but seems now to have reached fever pitch.
The other morning on Today on BBC Radio 4 Nick Robinson launched into a rambling sermon about how Farage could be prime minister. Thinking sod that for a grubby lark, I switched to Radio Three and took a deep and calming breath.
Social media, especially Threads, has been rattling with complaints about the BBC’s obsession with Reform. As pointed out here previously ad nauseum, we have the BBC largely to thank for Farage in the first place. He’s been endlessly paraded on the news programmes and appears on Question Time almost as often as presenter Fiona Bruce.
The gradual normalisation of this far-right politician is how we ended up with innocent listeners having to run screaming from the Today programme to the calm waters of Radio 3. That’s my experience anyway, but those complaints are real and rising.
Just as I was thinking there must be something in all this, up pops a story in Byline Times, the independent, reader-funded newspaper.
Adam Bienkov reports that the BBC’s director general Tim Davie has drawn up plans to win over voters of Reform UK thanks to a belief that BBC news and drama output is creating “low trust issues” with supporters of Nigel Farage’s party.
This was also reported by the Daily Telegraph, should you prefer your stories from a potty right-wing source.
According to Byline Times, minutes of a meeting of the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee in March show that “BBC News CEO Deborah Turness gave a presentation in which she discussed plans to alter ‘story selection’ and ‘other types of output, such as drama’ in order to win the trust of Reform voters.
I must have missed the meeting they had after last year’s general election when BBC bosses suggested altering story selection so as not to offend those who’d voted Labour.
Never mind ‘low trust issues’ with Reform voters, what about no-trust issues with those of us who detest Reform? What about those of us who expect the BBC to report diligently and deeply about Reform – to put proper questions to Farage, rather than wheeling him out to do his third-rate Trump tribute act.
Here’s your timely reminder that the Editorial Guidelines Committee has caused much internal disquiet at the BBC, thanks to the influence of BBC Board Member Robbie Gibb. Gibb was appointed to the board by former Boris Johnson in 2021 and was later identified by former BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis as an “active agent of the Conservative party”. He also had a role at the Reform-supporting GB News, where Farage has a show – on which he frequently disparages a BBC that is now fawning all over him.
And what’s been Farage’s big idea on the councils his party now runs? Trying to copy Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency – so-called Doge – even though the American original is in chaos after the door-banging departure of Elon Musk. Besides, councils in this country are on their knees thanks to years of cuts.
Farage promotes himself through whatever grievance he finds convenient. He is a nasty moaner, a man of constant complaints, one who knows little outside of those grievances, a man who often seems to spurn the UK for America, where he is said to be backed by ‘dark money’ from the Trump-loving American right.
And yet he is being spoken of as a potential prime minister.
God save us, everyone.
NOT everything is bad about BBC news. On the website now you will find an excellent think piece by the veteran correspondent Jeremy Bowen, speaking in his role as the BBC’s international editor.
Under the headline “Israel is accused of the gravest war crimes – how governments respond could haunt them for years to come”, Bowen begins as follows:
“Even wars have rules. They don’t stop soldiers killing each other but they’re intended to make sure that civilians caught up in the fighting are treated humanely and protected from as much danger as possible. The rules apply equally to all sides.
“If one side has suffered a brutal surprise attack that killed hundreds of civilians, as Israel did on 7 October 2023, it does not get an exemption from the law. The protection of civilians is a legal requirement in a battle plan.”
A sobering but important piece of writing from a man who has been on the ground for years and knows what he is talking about. It clearly addresses Israeli war crimes. Read it before some bigwig panics and takes it down.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0r1xl5wgnko