| | | Good morning.
First, it was a doctored Donald Trump speech, then it was biased reporting on the Gaza war, trans issues and race. A week of damning headlines exposing the rot at the heart of the BBC newsroom have finally forced Tim Davie, director-general, and Deborah Turness, BBC News chief executive, to quit.
Last night, the US president thanked The Telegraph for our tenacious reporting of a whistleblower’s deep concerns about our national broadcaster, once so loved and trusted by the British people.
It leaves the BBC facing its biggest crisis since the Jimmy Savile scandal. Gordon Rayner, our Associate Editor, asks: what now for the beleaguered BBC? Chris Evans, Editor
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Free thinking. Straight talking. Explore more opinion from the nation’s leading comment writers. |  | Gordon Rayner Associate Editor | So what now for the BBC?
The hunt is now on to find a leader who can restore the trust that evaporated during Tim Davie’s tenure.
Mr Davie talked a good game when it came to impartiality, but he was never willing to sack anyone who let licence fee-payers down. And so the culture that led to faking Mr Trump’s words, regurgitating Hamas propaganda and censoring coverage of the transgender debate was allowed to grow unchecked.
BBC insiders say Mr Davie’s biggest weakness was that he had no background in news, and so he was never prepared to stand up to those who cried foul whenever he tried to intervene in that most important part of the corporation.
The BBC board would do well to pick someone who has a journalistic background, and who has the guts to fire people if they ignore the BBC’s founding principles.
If that proves impossible, and if they feel the job of director-general is too big for one person, the board might have to consider something more radical, like restructuring the corporation.
Trust takes decades to earn but it can be lost at a stroke, and the BBC simply cannot afford to get this wrong again.
Read the full story here ➤
More of our coverage:
How The Telegraph’s revelations made Davie’s position untenable ➤
Things could now get very messy for the corporation ➤
‘When I last saw Tim Davie he was furious at The Telegraph ... and certain there was no BBC bias’ ➤
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This week, someone has put themselves on top of a bonfire, but why? Submit a caption to be in with a chance of winning a large amount of satisfaction. I’m excited to hear your thoughts.
We also have our winner from last week below.
While I had imagined this cartoon as a commentary on Rachel Reeves’s rental difficulties, I hadn’t thought to link it to the former Prince Andrew’s upcoming move. Jon Jennings skilfully combined the two stories, with this the amusing result.
As always, I’ll be answering your questions on the Your Say page, so please enter some for me!
PS, for an inside look at what inspires my weekly cartoons, you can sign up for my personal subscriber-exclusive newsletter here. | An elegy for elegies Every weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal Reader Correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories. Orlando writes...
Poetry, for thousands of years exalted as one of the highest forms of human expression, is at a bit of a low ebb today. That’s not to say there aren’t good poets around; there are. But it is an increasingly niche interest (unless you count “Instapoetry” – which, given that you’re sensible, literate people, I suspect you don’t).
I’m as guilty as anyone of neglecting it. I used to read quite a lot, and even briefly tried to write some (the world is not a poorer place without my efforts). Now I might dig out an old favourite every few months. Part of the problem is that poetry isn’t taught in schools as it used to be – that is, in a way that pupils don’t find either frightening or boring – so the habit doesn’t form. But it may also just be that our time-pressed, attention-deficient age isn’t particularly conducive to reading it.
All of which is a way of saying that I think Lucy Thynne, The Telegraph’s Deputy Literary Editor, is doing us all a great service with her new poetry series, in which she will publish one coffee break-friendly work each week. I’m looking forward to seeing what she chooses. And in response to her inaugural article, Telegraph readers have been sharing the poems that mean most to them.
M Gudenian wrote: “I was brought up with poetry; my beloved mother knew reams by heart. Each morning at breakfast we would recite poems together. At the end of her life, when she was 98, I sat at her bedside reading to her perhaps her favourite of all poems, Wordsworth’s ‘Intimations of Immortality’.”
Another reader put in a word for “The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, my favourite. I had to copy it out 50 times at school 40 years ago and effectively memorised it. I can’t remember the minor misdemeanour that brought this about, though.”
J Landels added: “I have enjoyed poetry all my life, under the influence of both of my parents. My mother lived to a ripe old age and could still quote from Robert Burns in her 98th year. I am now 87 and am a member of two poetry groups, which are helping me to stay connected to like-minded folk of all ages.” What’s your favourite poem? Send your replies here, and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of From the Editor PM, for which you can sign up here. | Plan your day with the telegraph | Set your alarm to catch up with journalists on the Your Say page and listen to their analysis on our latest podcasts.
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Residents in Banbury, Oxfordshire complained to the county council that their potholed road had not been resurfaced in 42 years which has made the road dangerous to drive on. How long were the residents told the average wait time is for resurfacing a road like this? | | Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including PlusWord, Sorted, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
The solution to yesterday’s clue was BLACKBIRD. Come back tomorrow for the answer to today’s puzzle. | | Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow. Chris Evans, Editor
P.S. I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback here. | |
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