The Tories have been undermining the BBC for years. Read this Adam Bienkov and Patrick Howse piece for Byline Times from last year The BBC’s Road to Appeasement reprinted here:
www.bylinesupplement.com/p/the-bbcs-road-to-appeasement
Starts:
Almost 20 years ago, Dominic Cummings was calling for the “end of the BBC in its current form” and advocating to make the broadcasting environment a more favourable one for the right.
The plan of the man who would go on to become Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s controversial chief advisor was first outlined in a series of blog posts for the think tank Cummings then headed – the now defunct New Frontiers Foundation.
Cummings described the BBC as “a mortal enemy” of the Conservatives and wrote that there were “three structural things” the right needed to happen. These were the “undermining of the BBC’s credibility”; the “creation of a Fox News equivalent/talk radio shows/bloggers etc. to shift the centre of gravity”; and “the end of the ban on TV political advertising”.
If you don’t think that what has happened over the Trump edit was deliberately engineered then you are missing the bigger picture.
I’m glad Tim Davie has resigned. One less Reform-appeasing Tory at the BBC.
bylinetimes.com/2025/06/09/bbc-news-tim-davie-robbie-gibb-reform-voters-nigel-farage-trust/
Tufton Street-linked Samir Shah should go as well along with Robbie Gibb. They can get rid of Kuenssberg and Bruce too.
It won’t happen. Weak Shah will appoint similar and the right wing bias will continue.
Alistair Campbell: The real weakness of the BBC, as exemplified by recent events, is its failure to stand up to ludicrous claims from the right that it is somehow hugely biased to the left. Listening to Telegraph journalists bleat about a biased BBC, or Reform MPs enjoying more platforming than any minority party in history, underlines that. This is the work of right wing journalists and owners working hand in glove with right wing forces inside the BBC to undermine it. The Labour government needs to help the BBC stand up for itself and clear out those forces that want the BBC to fail.
