To BBC or not to BBC, it's a question of bias

BBC, seen in many quarters as the paragon of journalistic integrity, now finds itself in the throes of a credibility crisis so severe, it has claimed heads of its top brass. Director-general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness have resigned following a Panorama documentary debacle - where by splicing two segments of Donald Trump's January 6, 2021, speech, delivered nearly an hour apart, a narrative was fabricated that made the president appear to incite violence directly. The result was a Frankenstein's monster of a quote, stitched together with all the finesse of a tabloid hack and the ethical compass of a GPS gone rogue.

Media houses in Britain and the US, unlike in India, have traditionally 'taken sides', with the Guardian and NYT openly displaying their left-of-centre Labour/liberal Democrat credentials, and Fox its conservative right leanings. BBC, less open to wearing its heart on its sleeve, has, with this latest editorial debacle, damaged its brand as a reliable news-provider. In the age of deepfakes and disinformation, playing fast and loose with chronology and context isn't just irresponsible, but dangerous. The edit conveniently omitted Trump's call for peaceful protest, instead painting him as a fire starter.

Whether one loathes or lionises Trump is beside the point. The fallout is an own goal for the Beeb. Davie and Turness didn't just oversee a bad edit; they presided over blatant anti-Trumpism where trumped-up 'facts' were made to play adjudicator. Bias, for any organisation, particularly a media one, can destroy reputation - if that reputation, indeed, is to be unbiased. To be caught guilty of manufacturing truth will now require major damage control - not so much with apologies at this stage, but with redoubled accountability.