Crisis At BBC Persists Despite Chairman’s Meeting With MPs

If you tuned into the Culture, Media and Sport committee hearing on Monday expecting a gladiatorial showdown, you’d have been left wondering where the swords were.
There have certainly been occasions when Select Committee hearings have felt worthy of Rome’s Colosseum, with MPs grand-standing and landing blows.
After two turbulent weeks of a BBC crisis, with the pressure on him, Samir Shah looked nervous as he began his session in front of MPs.
But within 10 minutes or so, the chairman appeared to relax. That may have been the moment when he realised these MPs had not come equipped for mortal combat. There were to be no killer blows.
The key thing for Shah and the BBC was for him to demonstrate that he’s got a grip on the corporation. He was asked twice if he should have resigned. He said his job is now “to steer the ship” – and begin the search for the next director general.
Caroline Thomson, a fellow board member sitting next to Shah, said he had the unanimous support of the board.
She neglected to mention the resignation of the board member Shumeet Banerji on Friday, citing “governance issues”.
That obviously added to the pressure on Shah ahead of this committee appearance – and this is the part of his evidence where he came alive.
Although he praised Banerji, he pushed back on the sense the ex-board member hadn’t been consulted about events leading up to the resignations of director general Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness.
The BBC chairman went into his session with MPs in a fairly weak position – accused of losing grip over his board.
He appears to have come out stronger – but still damaged.
The chair of the committee, Dame Caroline Dinenage, later suggested the MPs were not convinced the BBC board was in “safe hands”.
“He didn’t really have direct answers on the questions of how to get the BBC to act quicker, act more decisively…
“We were really looking for hard evidence that the BBC board are going to grip this.
“I’m not entirely convinced that they can and that they will… I don’t think as a committee we were wildly enthused that the board is in safe hands.”
However, if the BBC wanted to show unity, it succeeded. After two weeks where we have heard about divisions at the very top (including claims of a fracture between the news division and the board as well as allegations that the board itself is divided), the three BBC board members presented a united front.
It certainly didn’t make riveting TV.
Media regulator and former BBC journalist Richard Ayre didn’t mince his words, not least about the session’s long running time.
“About four hours ago – it feels like four years ago – I began by saying this felt likely to be a bit like an episode of The Traitors, and the question would be who would be the next person to bite the dust,” he told BBC News when the session ended.
“I think after we’ve sat through these two interrogations by MPs, the answer is there will be no banishing this evening and they’ll both be down to breakfast tomorrow morning.
“Over the last two weeks we’ve had across the media countless reports of tensions within the BBC board… And yet the picture we got… today was all peace, all light – everybody has full confidence in everybody else.”