THE BBC will never please all of the people all of the time – no matter how much it tries. However, it was good to hear Donalda MacKinnon admit that some had lost trust in the broadcaster during the 2014 referendum campaign.
She said regaining that trust was a priority when she took up the post of BBC Scotland director in December 2016, but since then the broadcaster has rarely been far from controversy.
MacKinnon said yesterday that the time was right for her to go: “It has not been an easy decision for me to leave this job, a brilliant team and the best colleagues and friends I could have wished to have ... but I am sure that this is the right moment for me and for all of us.”
So has she succeeded on the trust issue? Twitter user Graeme Purves didn’t think so: “Before she goes, will Donalda MacKinnon give an update on progress in winning back trust, and the dramatisations of Scottish literature she promised?”
READ MORE: BBC Scotland boss Donalda MacKinnon to step down after four years
In January, Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, called for a “radical shake-up” of the BBC and accused it of a “glaringly obvious” disregard for devolution and “systematically” omitting Scotland and the SNP from its stories.
The spat between the broadcaster and the party has dragged on for years, but came to a head during campaigning in December’s General Election.
Blackford said the SNP “often had to challenge” the BBC during the campaign, only for the broadcaster to insist its coverage had been “fair and proportionate”. This came after an SNP official sparked a row by demanding that broadcasters “rigorously scrutinise” the Tories’ “undemocratic and untenable assertion” that the SNP did not have a mandate for a second referendum.
But there were many examples we could point to in MacKinnon’s reign which highlighted the failure of the broadcaster to properly serve Scotland.
Who could forget the case of “Orange jacket Man”, alias failed Ukip candidate Billy Mitchell, who managed to notch up four appearances in the Question Time audience – more than most SNP politicians? After he was spotted by social media users, Mitchell said he had been personally invited by producers who wanted more conservative representation, and claimed the BBC sent him “offers for tickets all the time”.
READ MORE: 10 times Donalda MacKinnon didn't 'win back trust' at BBC Scotland
There was a public outcry over that when it emerged that the BBC had secretly edited out a Fiona Hyslop answer to Mitchell’s question to make it look as though she hadn’t properly responded to a lengthy Unionist rant about the SNP.
We later revealed that her answer had been edited because he had been screaming about Alex Salmond. Well in that case, why give him any airtime at all?
Then there was the major Ashcroft poll which put support for independence at 52% – a major development which was covered in Australia, India and Denmark ... but not on the BBC Scotland politics website. They said “we don’t report on individual polls”. We checked that out – and were able to highlight 27 times they did exactly that.
The BBC then displayed more signs of bias in an episode of Newsnight, where the “changing landscape of UK politics” was being discussed. The on-screen graphic showed logos for the Tories, Labour, LibDems, a huge Ukip logo and a Green Party pennant floating in occasionally.
Despite being the third-biggest party in Westminster, and Ukip not even having any MPs, there was no sign of an SNP logo.
There are many more examples, but the BBC continues to defend its approach.
The last word, though, is from Malcolm McCandless, on Twitter: “No doubt a peerage is on its way for services to the Union. Donalda MacKinnon will be able sit on the green benches with her good friend Ruth Davidson and reminisce about the good old days at the Beeb whilst collecting their £300 daily allowance.”
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