Auntie’s in trouble from big brother

While it may be perfectly possible that the whole British Broadcasting Corporation Newsnight fiasco may have escaped the attention of the majority of the press outside of the United Kingdom I somehow doubt that it has gone entirely unnoticed. This is partly because as a former British journalist I am steadfastly resolute in my belief that the world hangs on every word which we print and broadcast.

Okay Newsnight messed up, in quite spectacular style; it is not the first news programme to get its facts wrong though. It probably doesn’t even rank as on the top 100. For one thing Newsnight did not actually reveal Lord McAlpine’s name, which seems to be what the majority of the online commentators are accusing it of doing. If anything Newsnight’s greatest flaw, and by extension that of now former Director General George Entwistle, was to underestimate the power of social media and the internet. What was once the purview, more or less, of the investigative journalist is now in the remit of a 10-year-old with a computer.

While this may have become apparent to a number of people it seems to be something which the more traditional elements of the press still have trouble coming to grips with. The recent debacle with the BBC has proved that the old divide between broadcast and print journalism still has some grounding, despite having a common enemy of sorts in the internet. The BBC’s downfall has been exacerbated by the reaction of the print press and the clear determination to take some of the attention away from the actions being raked over in the Leveson enquiry. This is a fact which has not been lost on the Chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten.
“I think my job is to make sure that we now learn the lessons from the crisis,” he said. “If I don’t do that and don’t restore huge confidence and trust in the BBC then I’m sure people will tell me to take my cards and clear off,” he was reported as saying. “But I will not take my marching orders from Mr Murdoch’s newspapers.”

It isn’t just their colleagues in the press who appear to be trying to make the most out of the situation.

Auntie is under attack from big brother it would seem as politicians wade into the debate. It isn’t the first time that the British government has used a crisis at the Beeb to try and assert an additional element of control over its editorial stance. Combined with the Leveson enquiry into the press and the Saville enquiry, however, it may be that this time they get their wish.

The internet has allowed for a greater spread of information than ever before. Social media has also created a greater awareness of the power of that information and with it if not outright fear than at least a healthy respect for it. It would be a mistake though to allow that fear, or respect for, information to lead to news outlets having its control removed from their power, particularly over one misjudged and disproportionately reported on program.