The BBC's boss and its head of news quit on Sunday (November 9) following accusations of bias at the British broadcaster, including in the way it edited a speech by U.S. President Donald Trump. Tom Mills, senior lecturer in sociology and policy at Aston University, says contradiction in the BBC's governance structure remains its 'central problem'. - REUTERS
00:00And this has been a central problem with the BBC, this sort of contradiction in its governance structure.
00:05On the one hand, it's claimed to be independent of any vested interests and of government.
00:10But in practical terms, you have people at the very top of the BBC who have the final say on editorial policy.
00:18And this is how sometimes things play out.
00:21On the one hand, one take on the current controversy is to say, well, look, this is a very straightforward case of right-wing figures on the board sort of defenestrating the leadership of the BBC.
00:34And I don't think that's completely untrue, but I think it's also the case that the people in the management side of the dispute, if you like, haven't really been able to set out any clear vision for what the BBC is, what it should do.
00:48There's lots of sort of nice words and statements about, you know, the BBC being trusted and so on.
00:55But there hasn't really been any public discussion around the BBC prior to this moment about how the BBC should interact with and respond to its audience.
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