WordblogJournalism in a changing world

This morning I have spent some time looking at the BBC’s new document "From seesaw to wagon wheel — safeguarding impartiality in the 21st century".  

I pity the programme makers who are going to have to apply this to watchable, informative and entertaining TV and radio. First they will need to decide what "impartiality" is and will look at the section (page 23) which attempts a definition of what "remains an elusive, almost magical substance, which is often more evident in its absence than in its presence". On to the definition:

Imagine twelve bottles on the alchemist’s shelf, with the following labels: Accuracy, Balance, Context, Distance, Evenhandedness, Fairness, Objectivity, Openmindedness, Rigour, Self- Awareness, Transparency and Truth. None of these on its own could legitimately be relabelled Impartiality. But all the bottles are essential elements in the Impartiality compound, and it is the task of the alchemist, the programme-maker, to mix them in a complex cocktail. Different proportions may be needed for different genres. But, as the Guidelines make clear, a mixture there must be, in every part of the BBC’s output. The chemical reaction should produce not a solid (too rigid), nor a liquid (too fluid), but an odourless gas (harmless, of course) which will infuse the programme-making environment and be healthily breathed by those who work there. Impartiality is, after all, not a state of grace, but a state of mind.

So the programme maker, whether of a sitcom or the news, has also to be an achemist, attempting to turn dross into gold.

Even the title of the report needs explanation:

Impartiality in broadcasting has long been assumed to apply mainly to party politics and industrial disputes. It involved keeping a balance to ensure the seesaw did not tip too far to one side or the other.

Those days are over. In today’s multi-polar Britain, with its range of cultures, beliefs and identities, impartiality involves many more than two sides to an argument. Party politics is in decline, and industrial disputes are only rarely central to national debate. The seesaw has been replaced by the wagon wheel — the modern version used in the television coverage of cricket, where the wheel is not circular and has a shifting centre with spokes that go in all directions.

Not being a cricket fan, much of that is lost on me, but I know that any wheel which is not circular and has a shifting centre is going to result in a bumpy ride. And so it is.

The Telegraph draws comfort from the report and starts its story: "The BBC is operating in a ‘left-leaning comfort zone’ and has an ‘innate liberal bias’ according to a report commissioned by the corporation."

The first quote — "left-leaning comfort zone" —  is not attributed further in the Telegraph story and a search of the full PDF of the report fails to find it. Perhaps the Telegraph should be producing some of its own guidelines.

Adrian Monck’s blog has fun with the Wagon Wheel metaphor and sums up nicely:

The report reads like some earnest but sensible Church encyclical. You know it’s not going to suddenly pop out and tell you that God is dead and we’re stranded in a moral vortex.
Still, in a passing nod to Nietzsche, twelve aphorisms are offered for guidance.
The reality is that editors chart the limits of impartiality by weighing number of complaints, and the strength of public, political and press hostility. It’s called a "heuristic."

At least that approach is more reliable than alchemy.