BBC staff express fear of public distrust after election coverage
Director general calls accusations of bias ‘conspiracy theories’
Director general calls accusations of bias ‘conspiracy theories’
The BBC’s director general has expressed his exasperation with “conspiracy theories” about the broadcaster’s election news coverage, although some of its journalists privately fear that errors during the campaign may have hit public trust in the corporation.
Another employee involved in the broadcaster’s politics output during the election said: “I’m proud of the programmes we’ve put together, but I feel like we’ve been undermined at every turn by constant gaffes on the part of senior presenters and editors.
I detect an unhealthy us-versus-them mentality, an unwillingness to say sorry when the BBC gets it wrong and a genuine terror of upsetting the government in particular.”
One regional BBC reporter said they had noticed many more members of the public refusing to talk to him, although it was unclear whether this was just part of a general anti-media reaction among the public.
“It felt like BBC reputation has taken a bit of a hit and not just in the Twitter vacuum. Not that I think there is a bias of course. Just a series of errors have unfortunately fallen a similar way, which gives plenty of ammo.”
One BBC journalist working on a high-profile radio programme expressed exasperation with “ludicrous Twitter storms” over minor errors but admitted criticism had made life harder. “It’s really tough working for the BBC at the moment.
I have never known the fury to be so great. But my overwhelming impression is that people should be careful what they wish for, because they will end up with Fox News or Russia Today.”
