As an American living in the UK and a strong supporter of the BBC, let me simply urge the BBC not to be intimidated by anyone or allow criticism of mistakes it made to undermine your morale and visionary mission. You are the gold standard of broadcast news – not just public service broadcasting. Your viewers stand with you to support rather than undermine one of the world’s most trusted broadcasters.

The BBC’s ‘boss’, the Director General, and news chief have both announced their resignations, having accepted responsibility for several editorial decisions made or not made by their teams that have faced strong criticism.* They and their teams will undoubtedly be focused on addressing any systematic issues that led to mistakes in their editorial judgements and processes. This is how organizations, from railroads to broadcasters, improve their operations – by learning from accidents and mistakes.

Critics of the BBC have and will continue to attack this institution. That comes with the territory of seeking to report the news without fear or favour. And, of course it is not helpful to give critics a leg to stand on, such as in the case of editing President Trump’s speech tied to the January 6 riots at Capitol Hill, which was part of a Panorama programme at the centre of these criticisms. However, these are mistakes because they do not uphold the highest principles of BBC’s mission. If the BBC were one of the growing numbers of partisan news outlets around the world, no one would bother to criticize their coverage as biased – that is what partisan outlets do.

The BBC has the tradition, talent, and public trust to withstand these attacks on the institution. The news should remain central to that mission, in my opinion, but it needs public support to move ahead in renewing and improving their focus on conveying the truth in innovative and professional ways that inform and entertain the public.

I start every day waiting for BBC World Service news headlines and – from living most of my life in the US – I know that the BBC remains world leading with very few other strong broadcasters competing for the public amidst a cacophony of media outlets. This is a time for the public to stand by the BBC to show and renew its support for one of the world’s most trusted public broadcasting service.

Note

*https://www.ft.com/content/ccc0ec9a-aba6-4380-aeaa-ffe5fe803578