When the country is divided, the BBC is on the rack.” So said a BBC executive at the time of the Suez crisis in 1956, which led to the resignation of the then-prime minister, Anthony Eden. That crisis was over the Middle East.
Today, the corporation is on the rack again over its coverage of that region. This time, there are calls not for the PM to go, but for the BBC’s director general or one of his senior executives to, first, explain themselves to MPs, and then perhaps walk the plank.
