The corporation was left-leaning, but now it is terrified of attacks from the right. And that’s the biggest threat as it strives for impartiality
Criticism ebbs and flows at the BBC, and then suddenly engulfs the corporation in waves. It happened with the Gary Lineker controversy, which prompted a standoff, a mutiny and yet another bout of BBC bashing over impartiality. Typically the hardest kicks have come from figures on the political right, complaining that the BBC is leftwing.
Thirty-five years ago, when I joined the corporation, they would have had a much stronger case. Back then, the default framing for much of the news agenda was indeed set by the Guardian: there was no shame in spouting what may have been described as Guardianesque views at the morning meeting of the World at One or the PM programme.
