This claim re: trust in the BBC bothered me a bit - the decline seemed implausibly large and, to the extent there has been a decline in trust, this seemed unlikely to be a BBC story.
So I did a little bit of digging around. Here's the latest MORI polling (2020) which shows when asked to choose a single most trusted news source, 62% said the BBC, far ahead of any other source: ipsos.com/sites/default/…
Here is some recent polling from YouGov which, again, shows that trust in the BBC is higher than in any other outlet: yougov.co.uk/topics/media/a…
This rather older finding from 2012 is I think the source of the finding Goodwin cites - a YouGov poll showing trust in BBC journalists at that point (8 years ago) was 43%, down from 81% in 2003. newstatesman.com/broadcast/2012…
Note however that BBC journalists are more trusted than any other group/person asked about and other categories also saw large declines - ITV (-41), journalists on "upmarket" papers (-27), journalists on "midmarket" papers (=18)
Now, it turns out that earlier YouGov poll from 2019 I mentioned seems to be from the same long running series, asking the same questions. It finds trust in BBC journalists to tell the truth was 43%, just 1% less than the figure from 2012
So, what can we conclude? 1. Trust in the BBC, and many other media institutions, took a big hit between 2003-2012. Not sure exactly why, but I'd guess Iraq and the financial crisis are prime suspects 2. Trust in the BBC hasn't fallen *at all* since 2012.
3. The BBC are still more trusted than any other outlet - with nearly two thirds picking them as their most trusted outlet. I don't think, therefore, that Goodwin's claim stands up to scrutiny. The BBC's trust has not fallen at all recentlt.
It therefore makes no sense to link the recent behaviour of BBC journalists to a collapse in trust in the BBC. Perhaps the BBC got something wrong between 2003 and 2012 (if they did, then so too did many other outlets whose trust also collapsed)
But a claim that recent BBC behaviour has driven falling public trust doesn't hold up to scrutiny, because public trust in the BBC hasn't fallen, at least on the polling I was able to uncover, in recent years.
One final point - there is a *general* trend of declining trust in many institutions, which is indeed a very worrying trend. But precisely because it is general across many institutions, it is hard to plausibly link to the behaviour of one single institution.
PS Have found the full trends for the YouGov trust tracker, which you can peruse here:
docs.cdn.yougov.com/vf1qhxf7kh/YG%…
Trust in the BBC fell steadily from 2003-2012, then recovered from a post-Saville low ebb of 44% and bounced between 50-60% from 2013-17
docs.cdn.yougov.com/vf1qhxf7kh/YG%…
Trust in the BBC fell steadily from 2003-2012, then recovered from a post-Saville low ebb of 44% and bounced between 50-60% from 2013-17
The last four readings have been 51 (Oct 18), 44 (Dec 19), 48 (Mar 20), 50 (Apr 20), 47 (Apr 20). Essentially no trend at all.
PS - MORI data, kindly uncovered here, shows no declining trend at all over the same period (though also shows the same brief downward spike post-Saville):
Survation also show BBC as most trusted info source in 2020 polling, so the finding is consistent across pollsters:
