The Daily Mail welcomed Tony Hall back to the BBC on Wednesday in textbook fashion, with a whole leader column moaning on entirely predictably about "A gurning DG and the question of bias". Paul Dacre was apparently unimpressed with Hall's Ken Dodd-meets-Andrew Marr turn outside New Broadcasting House on Tuesday morning, with the leader sniffily noting that "though his demeanour may lack Reithian gravitas, his exuberance is easy to understand" given that he has been given the keys to the BBC tuck shop. Presumably the Mail leader writers forgot that the Reithian ideal is for the BBC to inform, educate, and entertain. The Mail leader goes on to have a familiar whinge about the BBC's alleged left-of-centre political bias, casting a baleful eye over the corporation's coverage on Tuesday of the government's decision to remove legal aid for divorce cases. Dacre's organ will presumably only be satisfied when the lead story on the BBC1 10pm news, like Wednesday's Mail splash on convicted child killer Mick Philpott ("Man who bred 17 babies"), is headlined something along the lines of: "Vile product of welfare UK."
