When in a hole, stop digging. It’s a lesson the BBC has failed to heed many times, most notably with the Huw Edwards affair but also with Jimmy Savile, Martin Bashir and numerous others down the years.
For a media organisation, one that should be well-versed in fast decision-making and communicating, the corporation is appallingly lacking. It’s as if something sclerotic takes hold when something untoward occurs. The result is that the aftermath is often worse than what preceded it and the feeling persists of a body that has to be dragged kicking and screaming when found to be at fault.
The latest calumny concerns Donald Trump. You would think they would know that just about the worst person to inflame is the American President. Poke him and he is riled. The only way to deal with him is to flatter and ingratiate, and if you’re found to be at fault, to instantly and fulsomely apologise. Gorging on humble pie is the only language he understands.
Yes, the BBC chief executive, Tim Davie and head of news, Deborah Turness, have quit. But that is not enough. It was never going to be enough. Trump seeks complete capitulation. Resignations plus grovelling ought to do it, anything less will not suffice.
So, the statement from the chairman, Samir Shah, that the deliberate splicing of Trump’s Capitol Hill rally address to make it seem he told his supporters to go to the bastion of US democracy and "fight, fight, fight" which of course they did, when he said no such thing, not in that context anyway, was an "error of judgment" is woefully misplaced.
It underplays the seriousness. Someone took that decision to fake the tape, others presumably agreed, no one apparently sought to question what they were doing and the flagship Panorama programme showing Trump exhorting violence of the most treasonous kind, duly aired. That involved a multiplicity of individuals and layers, all of which went along with the editing, or at least did not think to compare what Trump actually said with what was broadcast, and query if this was right and proper behaviour befitting the BBC. Any semblance of objectivity and following its famed high editorial standards and news values, appear to have been ditched.
Trump, then, has just cause to be angry. Put that against a backdrop of his suspicion of an organisation thought to be liberal in its views and long regarded as a target by the right, and you might suppose the BBC’s high-level antennae would be on full alert. Set it too, against the unfolding claims that Davie and Turness are the victims of an attempt to undermine – something for which there is evidence, certainly to justify the accusation – and the managerial alarms should have been shrieking.
From Trump’s perspective – and it is not easy supposing what goes on inside that head of his – he is the victim, straightforwardly. Yet BBC supporters and colleagues of Davie and Turness are loudly proclaiming there was a plot. That makes it look as if Trump was part of that conspiracy, which he patently was not. Whatever has gone on and is going on, he merits recognition that he has been traduced and it should be delivered on a gold tray from bended knee. That, crucially, he is not seeing.
So, it is no surprise that he is now threatening legal action, to sue the BBC for $1 billion. Some might say he is vindictive, that having secured the heads of Davie and Turness, he should call it quits. But he feels more is required and he is fully entitled, justified, in that opinion.
The BBC top brass really should have realised this. But oh no, the body, having presided over a profound mistake, is being dragged into a deeper quagmire also entirely of its own making. There will be one winner and it won’t be the BBC.
It’s strange how this occurs, but also familiar. As well as being criticised for systemic bias, the BBC would provide ample material for a textbook study in institutional inertia. It seems wholly incapable of understanding what is required and acting accordingly. Instead, process and structure kick in, where even the most obvious responses are delayed, if not mangled, to the point where they come across as mealy-mouthed and without sincerity.
As soon as the Trump clip was shown to be false, there should have been a ringing, unprompted apology. That never happened. Rather, there has been a drawn-out procedure, which has given the impression of the BBC wishing to do anything but actually say sorry. It’s taken the voluntary departures of two chiefs to bring the issue to a head and that is wrong. The not so subtle rearranging of Trump’s words was spotted months ago and since then there has been a simmering row, mostly played out away from the public gaze, in the higher echelons of the BBC. Nobody sought to grasp the nettle and put their hand up.
That smacks of poor leadership, a complaint that has constantly bedevilled the corporation in recent years. Too frequently the preferred position is not to go out on the front foot but to hide and to obfuscate, using the scale of the organisation, its august reputation and lustre as cover.
This default simply won’t do. Calls are being made for the Davie exit in particular to represent a turning point, that a new-broom director general should be appointed. But the opportunity to sweep the top floors of the Augean stables and the convoluted, largely historic, governing framework should be seized as well.
Seeking Trump’s absolution does not sit comfortably. That is a given. But, like it or not, he has been wronged. Too late, the BBC chair and board, and those advising them, have landed the broadcaster in an even worse mess. That is unforgivable and they have only themselves to blame.
