The BBC has long weathered accusations of bias. So why did the latest scandal lead to the resignations of the BBC’s director general and head of news? Many have pointed to the BBC board’s internal divisions over how to respond to a memo – leaked to The Daily Telegraph – alleging the BBC had “systemic problems” with its impartiality. A longtime critic of the BBC, the paper prominently reported on its claims.
But there has been limited scrutiny of the document at the centre of the chaos itself, and the man who put it together: Michael Prescott. Prescott was appointed as an external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, but left earlier this year.
