BBC has no right to taxpayer money if it cannot prove impartiality |
Unless the BBC can prove, definitely, that it is unbiased, it has no right to taxpayer money, writes Oliver Dean
The BBC’s latest bias scandal has blown a hole in the last remaining defence of the licence fee. For decades, the corporation’s unique funding model has been justified on the basis of trust: that in the hands of public ownership, news coverage cannot be swayed to favour any particular party or cause. But after a wave of senior resignations, the future of the corporation looks to be shaky. Unless it can prove to the British people that it is impartial, then it may be time to review its funding model altogether.
The BBC’s problem is not that it made a simple, editorial mistake that can easily be corrected. It’s that this mistake undermines the very foundation on which its entire funding model rests. Those that most strongly defend the institution point to its role as an impartial and unbiased source of news amidst an increasingly polarising world. Martin Wolf, for instance, argues that in recent years it has “helped to keep our most divisive national debates anchored in a bedrock of fact”. When 90 per cent of adults use the outlet to gather their news, one would........