Evidently Rishi Sunak has lofty ambitions for media impartiality (Downing Street denies having anti-BBC agenda after bias accusations, 22 January). When he says “all elements of the media industry have to be subject to the same impartiality rules”, is he including the Sun, the Express, the Daily Telegraph, GB News? And would he apply the same impartiality rules to his culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, when she says “audiences are feeling like impartiality and the BBC is on a downward trajectory”? According to a 2023 Oxford University survey, the BBC remains the most popular news source for both Conservative and Labour voters, and for both leave and remain voters. I may be biased, but I think that is a breathtaking achievement in our polarised society.
Peter Grimsdale
Former BBC and Channel 4 commissioning editor
• Huw Merriman fails to understand the essence of satire – it mocks those in power, not those without power (BBC Radio 4’s News Quiz is ‘completely biased’, minister claims, 23 January). If Conservative ministers do not wish to be continually satirised, there is an easy solution – call a general election and get voted out.
Neil Cole
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
• Tory politicians such as Huw Merriman don’t have the wit to realise that it is not that the BBC is biased, it is that by their own actions they are providing a constant and seemingly endless vein of rich material for satirical programmes such as the News Quiz.
Harvey Sanders
Paddington, New South Wales, Australia
