The BBC judo key is a warning to everyone

The media are imperfect machines that produce errors of varying degrees—or lies, if they are aware of it—every day. The BBC is currently experiencing its most intense editorial crisis, triggered by manipulation: assembling a Trump quote from two separate excerpts, recorded more than an hour apart, to suggest he instigated the march on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. I wrote in a previous article that news outlets can still create segments that the media cannot. And this was one such example, because the viewer was not alerted to the manipulation. Unacceptable: not only must the content be correct (which it was: the assault wouldn't have gained so much momentum without Trump's support), but also the presentation.

However, no one is forcing us, for the moment, to be completely in the dark. And the scope of the consequences—the resignation of the director general—is not explained solely by the magnitude of the blunder. There is a well-oiled machine of pressure from conservative sectors against the BBC, attacking two sensitive points: the threat of funding cuts and the perpetual questioning of its editorial line. The author of the dossier that precipitated the crisis is a journalist who had worked for Rupert Murdoch and is close to Sir Robbie Gibb, a staunch Thatcherite who holds a key position on the committee that oversees the broadcaster's journalistic standards. Public media must be subject to the strictest scrutiny because they belong to everyone. But we must be aware that there are many forces that would like them as thin as tissue paper—let's ask ourselves why—and are willing to play dirty to achieve this. They will only receive support if they present themselves to the public as exemplary. What has happened at the proverbially solid BBC should serve as a warning to other public broadcasters, because the leverage that has been applied is tempting to export.