Can We Still Trust the BBC?

Book excerpt: The scandals that have rocked the BBC have touched the corporation from top to bottom. As the revelations about Jimmy Savile unfold and shock the nation, people may reasonably ask what possible trust they can have in this incomparable national institution, once the embodiment of truth and moral excellence. This book asks a big question: can we still trust the BBC? Drawing on his earlier book, Can We Trust the BBC?, Robin Aitken, a BBC reporter and executive for 25 years, argues that these most recent controversies are rooted in longstanding lapses and shortcomings in the BBC's doctrine of impartiality. In the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, he considers how 'public sector broadcasting' can survive now that public trust in the BBC has been jeopardized. This book blends analysis and sharp polemic to paint a vivid picture of life inside the news machine, as well as the Light Entertainment department, giving the reader unique insight into the context in which the scandals revealed in 2012 unfolded. Everything Robin Aitken prophesised in his original book has come true. His analysis at least is to be trusted.