Societies Reflected In Their Media

Michael Hedges May 24, 2021 Follow on Twitter

Societies are fascinating; saints, savages and the rest of us in between. Over the millennia much has been learned about the intricacies of social life. To unravel it all, wonderful stories have been spoken and shared. Over time the myths and mysteries have become moral voices. Some have endured.

“Every government will use a BBC crisis as leverage against the BBC, because every government wants the BBC under its thumb,” said former BBC Trust member Richard Ayre to the Independent (May 21). It is a tidy summation of the predicament currently engulfing UK public broadcaster BBC. Mr. Ayre had been BBC Controller of Editorial Policy when interviewer Martin Bashir used extraordinary means (read: deception) to obtain access to Diana, Princess of Wales for the 1995 BBC TV Panorama program.

Right-wing British tabloids and newspapers were charmed by the courtship with Charles, Prince of Wales, and the marriage and the arrival of two sons as affirmative of the Royal Family’s regal narrative. That fell away as the marriage disintegrated, divorce ensued and Diana took on a different life, separate but still enthralling for millions. The tabloids and related paparazzi, figuratively at least, chased her to her death in 1997. It continues, political figures joining in.

BBC editorial executives looked critically at the 1995 Panorama interview, concluding Martin Bashir had run roughshod over editorial guidelines but allowed it to be broadcast. Leading that decision was then head of BBC News Tony Hall, now Lord Hall, who went on the serve as BBC Director General. Lord Hall, to his credit, steered the BBC to safety through various attacks during his tenure.

The BBC Panorama interview with the Princess of Wales attracted 23 million viewers. It was a bombshell, as they say. “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” The program was awarded the 1996 British Academy of Television (BAFTA) for best talk show. A decade later a poll of UK TV viewers for UKTV (January 2007) voted it “most memorable of all times.” UK tabloids have been apoplectic ever since, interrupted only by the phone hacking scandal of their own doing. Last week the BBC “returned” that BAFTA award.

Mr. Bashir left the BBC in 1998, exiting for UK TV broadcaster ITV. From there it were a dozen years in the US with TV networks ABC, NBC and cable channel MSNBC. He returned to the BBC in 2016 as religious affairs correspondent. He resigned that position two weeks ago for health reasons.

The UK Conservative Party has long had a fetching relationship with its supportive publishers and the phone hacking scandal did not miss Mr. Bashir at the time. “It’s hard to imagine the power that he exerted on politicians,” he on the NBC Today program (July 19, 2011), referring to News International proprietor Rupert Murdoch. “Imagine a combination of Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist, and someone like James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, the mobster. And what he had was the power to reward and to punish.” That power, he continued, is “a disturbing example of when government falls on its knees and gets out of the way.”

New BBC Director General Tim Davie moved forward on questions surrounding the Panorama interview by appointing retired jurist John Lord Dyson last year to investigate. That report, which liberally quotes UK tabloids, was released last week (May 20). “The BBC fell short of the high standards of integrity and transparency which are its hallmark by covering up in its press logs such facts as it had been able to establish about how Mr Bashir secured the interview and failing to mention Mr Bashir’s activities or the BBC investigations of them on any news program.” Lord Hall’s initial response to Mr. Bashir’s fast and loose improprieties with fake documents were criticized as “woefully ineffective.”

After leaving the BBC he became chairperson of the National Gallery. He resigned that position this week, reported the Financial Times (May 22). “It is clear my continuing in the role would be a distraction to an institution I care deeply about.” Media regulator Ofcom board member Tim Sutter also resigned. He had also participated in the initial BBC review of circumstances surrounding the Panorama interview. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to name right-wing former tabloid Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre as Ofcom chairperson.

Reliably loyal to the populist, nativist Conservative Party, Home Secretary Priti Patel squarely pointed to dire consequences for the BBC. "This is going to be a very significant and serious moment, at a time when the reputation of the BBC has been compromised,” she warned, quoted by the Independent (May 23). A government review of the BBC’s Royal Charter will begin next year ahead of it 2027 expiry. "If there is subsequent action that needs to be taken, then clearly - alongside the publication of this report and lessons being learned and changes, changes to the institution, structure, governance, accountability - then that will follow.” The Conservative Party has pushed to shrink and bring the BBC to heel since taking power in 2010.

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