Copyright Deadline
It’s all getting a bit meta outside the BBC‘s New Broadcasting House HQ this morning as the corporation remains steeped in crisis. BBC News boss Deborah Turness, who along with Director General Tim Davie was one of two shock resignations yesterday afternoon, was effectively doorstepped by one of her own staff members, as BBC News special correspondent Lucy Manning questioned her boss about the scandal. Check out the footage below. BBC News is editorially independent from the BBC and has been reporting on the story about its own organization all morning. Turness made very clear she needed to get inside the building hastily to speak to her team but was briefly robust in her defense of BBC journalism and the criticism from Donald Trump around the editing of a Panorama documentary – the catalyst for her and Davie’s resignations. “Of course our journalists aren’t corrupt, they are hard working journalists who strive for impartiality,” she said in response to Trump describing BBC journalists as “corrupt.” Trump had yesterday celebrated the resignations and declared a victory over the BBC. Turness stressed repeatedly that there is “no institutional bias” at the corporation but wouldn’t comment further. “I’m sure the story will emerge.” she added. “I stepped down over the weekend because the buck stops with me.” That story will be built out later when BBC Chair Samir Shah responds to questions around the scandal to the Culture, Media & Sport Committee, which insiders and observers are all impatiently waiting for. The committee asked Shah several questions around the scandal prior to the Davie-Turness double resignation, giving him a deadline of Monday November 10. In Turness’ resignation email to staff, she said she would “work with Tim [Davie] to plan an orderly handover to ensure that my decision to step away causes the least disruption possible to the important work that you do.” Manning reported this morning via the BBC News liveblog that a “large round of applause was heard in the BBC newsroom’s management area after Deborah Turness spoke to her editorial leadership team and told them the organisation is not institutionally biased.”
