Gaby Hinsliff is right to identify the doomed pursuit of a single voice that reflects the British national viewpoint (How can the BBC be the voice of the nation when no such thing really exists?, 7 January). What she does not point out is that the public’s overriding impression of the BBC is formed by its news output, and that any malaise in its feature or magazine programmes has trickled down from there.
The BBC has fallen into the trap of trying to offend no one and has ended up pleasing no one. Its spurious pursuit of balance has resulted in disproportionate amounts of airtime being given to climate change deniers, far-right politicians and pundits, and now lockdown sceptics and anti-vaccination conspirators. News has become formulaic, with a report that may be mildly critical of the government being “balanced” by a blanket rebuttal from the relevant department that goes unchallenged.
BBC News, radio and TV, dare not step outside the safe middle ground; hard questions are not asked. When the vaccine minister, Nadhim Zahawi, appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme, why was he not asked about his family having set up a medical firm? And why, when Boris Johnson appeared on the Andrew Marr show, was his statement that “schools are safe” allowed to pass without question?
To regain public trust, the BBC must rediscover its objectivity, its new director general must set an agenda of no deference or acquiescence to any political or commercial influence, and its new chair must not be the executive’s “man on the inside”. Only then can the BBC start once more to be the trusted source of objective reporting and analysis that we need.
Nigel Beatty
Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex
