The BBC and the battle for truth
Can the corporation save itself and the nation from
fake news and culture wars?
By Harry Lamber
[When the pandemic struck and the UK entered lockdown
for the first time, the BBC’s nightly news audiences
surged to 15 million.
Traffic to the BBC’s website in March 2020 almost
doubled year on year. Boris Johnson’s No 10,
which had briefed consistently against the corporation
and refused to allow government
ministers to appear on some of its
flagship news programmes,
suddenly understood how valuable
it was to have a trusted,
impartial national news source during
an emergency. Leading on-air editors
at the BBC watched with satisfaction
as the government’s aggression evaporated.
Yet the BBC is an institution in perpetual peril,
never more so than in this age of polarisation.
The need for a detached, fact-led,
impartial national broadcaster may be greater than ever,
but the appetite for so neutral
a service is quite possibly getting weaker
by the year.
In a crisis, the British turned to the BBC.
Over time, however, we have been tuning it out.
While its reach is almost universal in the UK,
people are spending less time with the broadcaster.
In an increasingly emotional news world,
the BBC can never be anyone’s echo chamber.]
https://www.newstatesman.com/politic...b-global-en-GB