Wordblog

No wonder the BBC is being derailed: it is answerable to a Trust that believes there is merit in a wagon wheel with a shifting centre and spokes that go in all directions (BBC Trust report on impartiality).

That was a month ago. Today Peter Preston in his Observer media column, under the heading "Petty crimes and little justice", concludes: "Trust is a five letter word. So is panic." He writes about the aftermath of revelations of viewers being misled, saying:  

There’s no natural justice to any of this; it’s more of a regulatory arms race than due process. Ofcom is there because (clause 2.11 of its code) it must ensure that ‘competitions are conducted fairly’. The trustees are (rather less obviously) there because they have a duty to ‘represent the interest of licence fee papers’ and ensure ‘open, transparent operation’ - which involves commissioning a code of practice from the BBC executive board and ‘monitoring’ its observance. The executive board is there to do what’s right anyway, because it’s right. And the Yard is seemingly always on call for a headline.

Back in May, Media Guardian led with a story saying:

With the Trust now the arbiter of which projects get the go-ahead - and even making retrospective decisions over whether services live or die - insiders say that innovative thinking is finding it harder to surface. And with commercial companies (including the Guardian) lobbying to try to scale back the BBC’s impact on the commercial world, the Trust is finding it difficult to balance a public service commitment against the fear of damaging the interests of industry stakeholders.

The Trust was set up with three objectives:

1. Sustaining a strong BBC that is independent of Government and responsive to the needs of licence fee payers;
2. ensuring that the BBC is able to adapt to the rapidly changing media environment;
3. reassuring the BBC’s competitors that the BBC will avoid undue impact on what is a thriving and creative marketplace.

Its record so far is not reassuring. I pay a licence fee and have lost trust in the Trust.