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The BBC is having a good coronavirus war The broadcaster has rediscovered its original purpose: uniting a divided nation

A national treasure once again. Photo: Jeff Overs/BBC News & Current Affairs via Getty Images

A national treasure once again. Photo: Jeff Overs/BBC News & Current Affairs via Getty Images


March 23, 2020   5 mins

Some optimists say that the current crisis might bring out the best in us. These sunny souls are invoking the re-emergence of the “Blitz spirit” of the Second World War, when the country displayed what we like to think of as our true national character: stoicism, generosity and fortitude in the face of adversity, all leavened with a doughty, self-deprecating humour.

They may well be right – it does feel somehow different out there – but whatever else this crisis has in common with that period, one wartime comparison that certainly rings true is that the BBC is once again a vital, unifing force.

The BBC is having a good crisis; in fact the coronavirus emergency could have been custom-made in one of the management suites of New Broadcasting House, the better to display the merits of our national broadcaster.

Back in January things were looking pretty bleak for the Corporation. There were threatening noises coming out of government circles about a forthcoming reckoning; the licence fee was said to be under unsympathetic scrutiny and to some the BBC’s very future seemed in doubt. Some commentators believed a “punishment beating” was in the offing in retaliation for the perceived slights of the previous three years.

That period was dominated by the frustrations of the Brexit debate, during which a long-brewing crisis in relations between Leavers and the BBC reached its peak. In the BBC’s latest annual report Tony Hall, the Director General, claims he was “extremely proud” of how his news teams had covered “this vitally important national story”, but this was not how many Leave voters viewed things, and to them it displayed a tin ear about the BBC’s one-sidedness.

But two months on and the landscape has been transformed by events, events that give the corporation time to do some repair work on its tarnished image as a trustworthy guide. That image is itself partly a legacy of the BBC’s wartime role as an honest truth-teller at a time of national crisis, for the years 1939-45 were when the foundation stones of the BBC’s reputation were laid, and explain why so many people have a strong emotional attachment to it.

In Auntie’s War, Ed Stourton’s book about the BBC during the period, he talks about “a golden thread of truth-telling” which ran through its output; and in some ways the Corporation has ever since been living off the moral capital it acquired during those perilous years. But 1945 is a long time ago and in recent years that capital has been draining away. And the Brexit debate nearly emptied the well.

The problem Brexit posed for the BBC was that its own deepest instincts, which were to remain firmly ensconced in the European bosom, coincided exactly with the strong preference of the Establishment. In the course of the long debate the BBC became the trusted cheerleader for those who opposed leaving. But the “national broadcaster” was broadcasting to a divided nation in which a slight majority had taken the opposite view and the Corporation never found a way of speaking for them. Rather than bring people together its reporting caused resentment and further division.

But Covid-19 is a very different proposition. For the past few weeks the BBC’s output has effortlessly found a tone which suits the national mood: it is clearly “on our side” because, unlike Brexit, this is a crisis which puts us all on one side against an invisible and frightening enemy. There is no deep political divide over the virus and, so far at least, the opposition parties have been supportive of the government’s action. And this makes the BBC’s job much easier; it gives it an opportunity to demonstrate its core values in a politics-free zone.

“Public service broadcasting” is a phrase that embodies a noble ideal, a promise of a fair, non-partisan, and truthful news service which everybody can rely on. This is particularly important when, as now, there is a genuine threat to national well-being. And the BBC — particularly Radio Four — has risen to the challenge.

The coverage of the spread of the virus, the containment measures proposed and the practical steps that individuals should take to minimise risk to themselves has been exemplary. All the news programmes have done well, but I would single out PM and Evan Davies in particular; Davies, with his non-confrontational, intelligent and probing style, is ideally suited to this particular crisis. Covid-19 has allowed us a glimpse of what authentic public service broadcasting looks and sounds like.

One small sign of how things have changed is the way in which government ministers are once again being heard on the BBC. The edict that ministers would no longer automatically offer themselves for a daily grilling on Today apparently came from Dominic Cummings, who saw little political profit in allowing ministers to be savaged by BBC journalists, always on the look-out for minor discrepancies to turn into a “divisions in government” story.

Throughout January and February the flagship programmes were minister-free zones, a policy which undeniably diminished them. Today has always prided itself on “setting the agenda” and the amount of “pick-up” by other media outlets was partly the measure by which it judged the success of its output; without any agenda-setting government interviews a vital ingredient was missing.

I always assumed that at some point in the political cycle this embargo would end; the time would arrive, I calculated, when the Government needed the BBC again. But I had not anticipated that time would arrive so quickly; of course, no one did.

As it is, health and business ministers now need to get on to the airwaves to reassure us all that the Government knows what it’s doing and is feeling our pain. One senses that BBC presenters are pleased that the old relationship has been, at least partly, restored; programmes top-heavy with Opposition spokesmen feel lopsided and incomplete.

This is not to say that the antagonism between the BBC and the Government is now a thing entirely of the past; the Beeb’s underlying political instincts have not changed and are still largely antithetical to conservatism. In Right-wing circles deep suspicion of the Corporation’s bias will remain, and it will not be a question of just letting “bygones be bygone”.

It is likely that when the epidemic has run its course hostilities will be resumed, if only because towards the end of the year the nation’s focus will turn again to Brexit as the negotiations between the EU and Britain reach their climax. But for now Covid-19 has entirely eclipsed Brexit and this gives both the BBC and the Government an opportunity to re-set the relationship.

It is in this context that the choice of replacement for Tony Hall in the summer is so important. The next D-G’s first and most important task will be to build on this truce and conciliate those elements of the Tory party who feel the Corporation is firmly in the enemy camp. Failure to do so might mean that the threat to abolish the licence fee (which has been and remains a hugely valuable privilege) translates into a reality.

But when the two sides begin to talk about these things the BBC will now be able to point to its performance during this health emergency: there they will be able to say “that is what good public service broadcasting means”.

In the coming weeks, with people marooned in their homes for long periods, the BBC will for many become a vital service keeping them informed and diverted at a difficult time. When “the war is over”, as it were, the Corporation is likely to emerge having earned renewed gratitude. Its stock will be high and it will thus be in a much stronger position to repel any political challenge.

If the BBC is wise it will also understand why this has happened and draw the right lesson from it. Because of the virus “public service broadcasting” has become more than just a phrase; it has real meaning which is allowing the Corporation to speak to, and for, the whole nation. What the BBC will then need to re-discover how to do that when times are normal again and ordinary politics come back into play.


Robin Aitken was a BBC reporter for 25 years; his book: The Noble Liar – How and Why the BBC Distorts the News to Promote a Liberal Agenda is published by Biteback Publishing


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Roger Tilbury
Roger Tilbury
4 years ago

Not sure I agree. Always seem to lead with the negative side of the story on Toady e.g. that freelancers are missing out the morning after Rishi’s enormous giveaway.
And when they interview some expert they seem to us disappointed when there’s no bad news.

Rob Grayson
Rob Grayson
4 years ago
Reply to  Roger Tilbury

If you’re a freelancer (and five million of us are), that “negative side of the story” is hugely important.

Colin Elliott
Colin Elliott
4 years ago
Reply to  Rob Grayson

Of course it is hugely important, but continually saying that the self-employed are being ignored or ‘forgotten’ doesn’t help. I would be more impressed if even one journalist had done his/her job and investigated the ways in which such people can be helped. Their situation is NOT similar to employees. Employees are paid by an employer which knows what they are doing and has the means to distribute money directly into their accounts.
In contrast, there is a vast range of self-employed. Bank details may be entered onto a tax return, but usually only when a refund is due, and even then, cheques are often sent. In my opinion, HMG should already have started the process by telling everyone to enter this data online. I’ll be interested in the eventual solution, but it’s bound to take time to implement, and I fully expect numerous problems including fraud.
I was pleased today to hear some of these difficulties mentioned for the first time.

Tom Rose
Tom Rose
4 years ago
Reply to  Rob Grayson

Perhaps a balanced view is more important than simply relying on bad news to get you scribbling. Try it sometime.

Jim le Messurier
Jim le Messurier
4 years ago

The article says that, post the worst of the Cov-19, the challenge will be for the Beeb to resist the buckling down into Remoaner crash position as the countdown to severance from the EU begins. The Beeb’s love of the EU seems too ingrained to be a realistic expectation, but you never know. If the EU gets shaken to its core by this epidemic – as Europeans question the rightness of upholding open borders as one of the EU’s cardinal aims, and the single currency project itself faces possibly unsurmountable difficulties – then the Remoaner consensus in the UK may seem increasingly crankish and be (largely) quietly put aside. At which point there will be no glaring and overriding divergence between what the government and the BBC thinks.

geo.hill
geo.hill
4 years ago

This is not the BBC that I see, the pack hounds of interviewers still snarl and snuffle around no better than than ITV, C4, Sky.
The pressure from the public will be greater than the the pressure from the Government to start doing its duty.
As the article says ‘the Beebs underlying political instincts have not changed’. This is a problem for them when the nation is expecting it to work with the government and that comment alone could be, along with Covoid 19 behaviour, the final nail in their coffin and to be fair they deserve it.

Ralph Windsor
Ralph Windsor
4 years ago

Agree that PM/Evan Davis is quite good but that’s about it. The BBC now has lots of competition for all their output, right across the board, broadcast and online, free and paid. The TVL is unsustainable and they will have to find another, more sustainable, revenue stream. People will simply not be prepared to carry on paying this poll tax for TV or radio services they may seldom view or listen to – or to keep the likes of Gary Lineker (£2 million a year) in clover!

G H
G H
4 years ago

My wife and I turn on the BBC to listen to the daily governmental briefings which have been well managed. Some of the journalists questions have been crass and generally all from the same MSM suspects but otherwise we see and hear what we need. Once over we now turn straight off the BBC to avoid the spin which invariably contradicts the tone we have heard from the horses mouth. We then go to LBC or talk radio for a more balanced commentary. News output aside, the BBC also fails to reflect the mood of the country on so many other levels. Comedy,drama, current affairs all have a woke preachy tone. ITV is now the channel of choice in our household.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
4 years ago

Well, perhaps. But I wouldn’t know. I gave up the BBC some time ago and I’m not going back.

Tom Rose
Tom Rose
4 years ago

The BBC has not learnt anything. The tone of this article reeks of bygone days of Empire and class; those days of long hot summers and the glittering prizes of Oxbridge. This is what the BBC dreams of, this is what the BBC was founded on and those old school ties are how it will strive to continue its miserable existence. The tone of the BBC is still sneeringly elitist, the structure still patrician and patriarchal, the agenda still unapologetically ‘woke’. The execution may have been postponed but it is still going to come, and not a moment too soon.