For years, many Christians have taken the BBC’s claim to impartiality with a large pinch of salt. Now, revelations that government civil servants have been seconded to work in its newsroom, including on fact-checking, have raised fresh questions about the relationship between Britain’s national broadcaster and the machinery of government.
If you haven’t already heard, the BBC has been caught out, running a placement scheme for civil servants. Whitehall staff were tasked with writing articles and fact-checking contentious issues. It has been reported that civil service fast-stream graduates and managers were seconded to the corporation’s newsroom to produce news and analysis on ‘high-impact, sensitive topics’ such as small boat crossings and the Covid pandemic.
Now that it has come to light, the BBC has decided to pause the scheme while it reviews the arrangements. It insists that editorial control had always remained with its own ‘independent’ journalists. Nevertheless, the arrangement was murky at best. The irony is clear. A broadcaster that established BBC Verify to help audiences distinguish fact from falsehood must now answer questions about its own transparency. Who fact-checks the fact-checkers?
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