He has a book to sell but nevertheless is being blunt about the bias at the bbc, given his stature it is a shame he couldn’t have done more when he worked there:
“One temptation the BBC sometimes finds hard to resist is social engineering. Yet its job is to hold up a mirror to society and reflect back to the audiences what it sees. For good or ill.
It should not try to create society in its own image. It should not try to place its powerful finger on one side of the scale of social justice.
Which is why I raised my eyebrows when the BBC announced it had created the new post of LGBT correspondent — and the man appointed said: ‘I’m looking forward to being the mouthpiece for some marginalised groups . . .’ It was the use of the word ‘mouthpiece’ that jarred. Obviously, the BBC must give a voice to minorities, but it must not act as anyone’s mouthpiece. That’s what lobbyists and public relations people do. To confuse the two is to undermine the job of a journalist.
Imagine a defence correspondent announcing that he sees himself as the mouthpiece for the Armed Forces. Or the health correspondent as the mouthpiece of the NHS.
Or even, heaven forfend, the royal correspondent as the mouthpiece of the Royal Family.
It worries me that the nation has become susceptible to certain pressure groups in a way that we should all find disturbing.
Academics call it ‘policy capture’. It means influencing policy — even dictating it — through fear rather than argument. They destroy those who disagree with them, often through personal attacks on their character or by sheer intimidation.”
Sorry for the Dailyfail link but one of the few papers speaking up:
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7487661/Broadcaster-John-Humphrys-lifts-lid-institutional-liberal-bias-BBC.html