Poor start

Oh, dear. The new Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, is following a narrative about the BBC based on assertion rather than evidence. The MP, born close to the country's longest running naturist club, bares his media chest at a conference this morning, and to show everyone how clever he is, he's told everyone what he's going to say.

“If we’re honest, some of our biggest institutions missed, or were slow to pick up, key political and social trends in recent years. The BBC needs to be closer to, and understand the perspectives of, the whole of the United Kingdom and avoid providing a narrow urban outlook.

"By this, I don't just mean getting authentic and diverse voices on and off screen - although this is important. But also making sure there is genuine diversity of thought and experience. And this matters because if you don't have that, you miss what's important to people and you seem distant and disengaged."

"The perception of news impartiality is currently lower for some public service broadcasting channels than commercial channels like Sky and CNN.

"Ultimately, if people don't perceive impartiality, then they won't believe what they see and read and they'll feel it is not relevant to them. In an age of fake news and self reinforcing algorithms, the need for genuine impartiality is greater than ever."

Both rude and wrong about the BBC. The BBC has more roots around the UK than the Woodland Trust; the 6.30 regional programmes around the UK regularly top the overnight audience ratings; no other media outlet has a daily farming programme; BBC1 put Countryfile in a peak viewing slot and it stuck. "Narrow urban outlook" is simply too rich from a career Tory who once spent three years with a London PR firm. Give him what for, Lord Hall.