The BBC, Question Time, murky waters and the need for navigation charts

It's the morning after the night before. I suppose I have two initial comments. My main question remains: Where in the whole BBC editorial decison making process does moral responsibility and social ethics feature alongside the political principle of impartiality - a principle which the BBC invests with considerable moral rhetoric? Second, having watched the programme it neither clarified BNP policy nor fulfilled the impartiality which the BBC itself holds so highly. Were BNP members allowed to be part of the audience and invited by the chair to participate? Not one voice in support of the BNP in the audience - I am not arguing for this, I am asking why the BBC isn't. The logic of insisting elected politicians are entitled to be there, surely holds for the entitlement of members of his party to be there. Were they?

But David is right in his observation in his comment - a media driven culture is a place of murky, complex, contested values - and the BBC has to navigate a way through them with a diminishing number of moral depth charts. I am left with the irony that the plaque inside BBC Headquarters erected inside on the appointment of its first Director General, that wild Scottish secular Calvinist Lord Reith, quotes Philippians 3.8. In 1931 the following inscription was unveiled

To Almighty God, this shrine of the arts, music and literature is dedicated by the first Governors in the year of our Lord 1931, John Reith being Director General. It is their prayer that good seed sown will produce a good harvest, that everything offensive to decency and hostile to peace will be expelled, and that the nation will incline its ear to those things which are lovely pure and of good report and thus pursue the path of wisdom and virtue.

I know times have changed - and we are no longer a biblically literate culture. And the BBC now sees itself as reflecting culture rather than seeking to shape it, and is therefore a cultural follower rather than a creative initiator - or is that too hard? Anyway, that earlier vision for media as humanising, entertaining, educational and reflective of a culture's core values was not wrong. There are a few moral depth charts in that quotation, a few lights to navigate by, and the verse itself, though from the Christian New Testament, has significant resonance within the faith and cultural pluralism that makes up our culture and our changing social fabric.

OK. I broke my own rule. I didn't complete a week of one liners. Sorry. But five out of seven might be called " a reasonable attempt at the assignment". 

Comments

[Catriona]

I think you are justified in breaking your self-imposed rule on this one. The topic will be much talked about today and it is good to have some competent reflections to read. Thank you.