The Art of News

Many of the BBC's defenders this week seem to think the BBC is not biased enough. That's a dangerous proposition.

Almost every week, and this week more frequently than most weeks, I see people sharing a now-clichéd line about journalism. The argument is usually put like this: “If someone says it’s raining, and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the fucking window and find out which is true.”

Sometimes this is true and sometimes it is also easy to determine whether it’s dry or not. But, you know, sometimes it is not true. Sometimes you can look out the window and see that there’s a lot of blue sky and sunshine but it’s still fucking raining too.

Especially in this country.

Which brings me to the media story of the moment and, in some ways, of the decade.

Much of the reaction to the crisis in which the BBC now finds itself has been, let us be frank, truly unhinged. BBC employees can hardly be faulted for defending a news room which, it is now clear, believes itself under siege. Others have fewer excuses.

The claim that Donald Trump intends to …