My column today in The Scotsman examines the BBC's coverage of last week's snow chaos story. In my view the service our national broadcaster provided to the public was about as useful as a jack-knifed lorry. The corporation saw itself as part of the story and pursued one particular angle above all others - political culpability - abandoning its "mission to explain" and failing to provide fair, impartial coverage. I was fortunate to find online the document outlining the BBC's Editorial Values, which it must maintain under the terms of its Royal Charter. Have a read and see if you think the Scottish arm lived up to them last week.
I am always willing to praise when the Beeb does something well. But last week's coverage crossed a line. It is inconceivable that the BBC in England would have conducted a concerted campaign across its supposedly quality news outlets had a similar story happened there - as it did when the M25 clogged up. No way would we have seen the kind of editorialising on the Today programme as we did on Good Morning Scotland. And no way would we see former members and activists of one particular party occupy so many posts in news and current affairs London, as they do in Scotland, without concerns being raised publicly.
It's not in the article, but readers will be interested to know that Tom Connor, who currently runs the sports show, is to take up a position in charge of online news for BBC Scotland. BBC online news is a crucially important source of information. A number of years ago Connor, along with John Boothman who runs political coverage, was censured for offering media training to Labour candidates. I do not know either man, though I respect Boothman's partner, the former Labour minister Susan Deacon. But how much public confidence can we really have in the BBC when so many of its senior decision makers come from this background? If there were an equivalent number of former SNP members in its ranks then fair enough, but that is simply not the case. Catrina Renton, a former Labour councillor, presents politics shows, and Tavish Scott's wife played a big part in last week's snow story. Yet when Elizabeth Quigley married the SNP's John Swinney she announced that she would no longer be involved in political stories and stuck to softer features instead.
The BBC has got it wrong too many times. We still have not heard a proper explanation of why the deputy first minister was banned from discussing SNP policy on BBC Question time. Now if ever an apology were due, it is to Sturgeon. Internal BBC people admit this in private, but in public take an arrogant defensive stance. Our major early evening news programme, Reporting Scotland, is tabloid telly which does democracy a disservice. How does BBC Scotland propose to give us intelligent and balanced coverage of the forthcoming Scottish election? The corporation still has not come to terms with devolution by providing the kind of extensive and varied current affairs coverage that is taken for granted across the UK.
The difficulties of balance go deeper than merely party political. The big divide in Scottish politics just now is between the SNP and the three unionist parties who together support a flawed Scotland Bill, misleading sold to the people as a significant transfer of power. The majority of Scots want their parliament to have real economic power far beyond that offered in the bill - a truly impartial public service broadcaster would reflect that in its coverage and questioning. It would act on behalf of the people, scrutinising the legislation properly and asking the hard questions...
For more on BBC Scotland go to Kenneth Roy for a forensic analysis of its snow chaos coverage go here to Newsnet Scotland
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If you read the column online (£30 a year for premium content, a bargain) you will see the usual array of comments from nasty cyber-unionists. They seem to think it is inappropriate for me to comment because I too have a political affiliation But the difference with the BBC is obvious. My political affiliation is stated at the end of the column where is says I am an SNP candidate. I am clearly writing opinion, not news. I am also writing for a commercial newspaper that does not operate under the same editorial guidelines as the publicly funded BBC. There is something wrong when our main source of supposedly impartial broadcast news is viewed as hostile and slanted by a significant proportion of the Scottish population.
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