Public trust in institutions like the BBC is facing a “full on crisis,” according to the corporation’s outgoing director-general, Tim Davie.
Speaking on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, Mr Davie conceded that the BBC has made “serious mistakes, which we regret.”
His comments come as he prepares to depart next month, having resigned in the wake of several controversies plaguing the broadcaster.
Among these was last summer’s criticism over the BBC’s live broadcast of punk duo Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury Festival performance, during which the group led chants of “death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces).”
And in November it emerged that the BBC selectively edited a speech made by Donald Trump on the day of the U.S. Capitol attack for a Panorama documentary.
Mr Davie told the podcast’s hosts, Richard Osman and Marina Hyde: “We have a crisis.
“It is – we should call it – a full-on crisis that people do not trust too many of our institutions.
“And in the UK, we’re well ahead of the world. We hate to even be happy about things, but it is a wonder that we have these institutions and they’re there to serve.
“But trust is built and I’m semi-obsessed by this – trust is built by people absolutely believing that someone is acting in their interest and that they listen to them.”
Mr Davie, who will be replaced by Rhodri Talfan Davies as the corporation’s interim director-general from April 3, also said the BBC is operating in a “weaponisation” era.
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“We’re in an age where weaponisation is rife,” Mr Davie told the podcast.
“And when I say weaponisation, someone said to me, well it’s not weaponisation, it’s simply pointing out the fact that you didn’t get that right or you pulled that documentary.
“And that is true. We’ve made mistakes, sometimes serious mistakes, which we regret. But weaponisation is selectively taking one fact – it may be a fact, so you’re standing on a fact – but what you’re not standing on is any effort to be proportionate.
“You’re not saying, look, a thousand stories run, we’re running, and one didn’t get it right, or overall this is where there’s no balance of data. It’s literally just selecting a fact to make a case.”
Mr Davie, who became director-general in September 2020, said he was in no doubt that the BBC will continue to exist, but the question is whether or not it will be a “market failure – forgive the jargon”.
“Almost a charity project on the side funded by general taxation or whatever it is where people don’t feel participative,” he added.
“I mean the DG may resign or something big might happen but if you’ve got two out of four TV channels you have to be doing a pretty poor job not to get an audience and I think what I’ve tried to do in my tenure is say: let’s not worry too much about that – let’s really worry about the value.”
But he said the BBC does not simply have a “right to exist”.
“It has to absolutely deliver value to every household,” he added.
Mr Davie also spoke on the topic of the BBC charter renewal, which takes place around every 10 years and is due to expire in December 2027.
“The point is not whether the BBC exists or not, it’s how that happens,” he told the podcast.
“And the idea that you’ve got a passive action to not renew just allows us to drift off – to me that just doesn’t make sense.”
He said this often gets misunderstood as the BBC not wanting accountability, adding: “Nothing could be further than the truth – we need accountability.
“But I do think the idea of a basic level of charter – I don’t know, there might be an example out there – but an overall charter that has a time length like this, I think there should be a standard provision that just goes forever, basically, until Parliament, or whatever the mechanism is, decides through recent debate – actively, actively, not passively – to say, okay, we don’t want the BBC anymore.”
Mr Davie’s appearance on the podcast comes as the BBC has come under fire more recently, after a racial slur was broadcast during its coverage of the Bafta film awards last month.
Mr Davie has previously described the incident as a “genuine mistake” and said the BBC takes “full responsibility for our error”.
The full episode of The Rest Is Entertainment is available to be listened to now.
