PM must grasp that Beeb is fighting for its very survival

So now what? The two most senior BBC executives have walked out of almost impossible jobs.

- ALAN RUSBRIDGER

The governance of the organisation is an almost laughable mess. And we’re within four years of the strong possibility of a populist government that would gladly administer the last rites.

Who, given the above, would willingly step into the shoes of Tim Davie or Deborah Turness, the outgoing director general and head of news? Who has the news chops and sheer backbone to lead one of the greatest news organisations in the world while simultaneously running a £5.4bn international corporation? And who would have their back?

You would never guess from the sometimes hysterical coverage of the past week that the BBC remains quite easily the most trusted news organisation in the UK. In the US, where it recently notched up monthly viewing figures of 77 million, it is now the second-most-trusted news source - just behind the Weather Channel.

None of this matters to its ideological and commercial enemies, who would quite willingly see it wither or die. And the so-called leaked “dossier” - penned by one Michael Prescott, who himself bailed out of journalism 24 years ago in favour of a life in corporate PR - has handed them just the weapon they need.

The killer blow for Davie and Turness was a single bad edit in a Panorama film about Donald Trump, broadcast a year ago and now expunged from BBC iPlayer. Let's all agree that the edit – which conflated two separate parts of Trump's speech on the day rioters stormed Capitol Hill – was unprofessional and indefensible.

The BBC should have reedited that part of the hour-long documentary, confessed to the error, and republished the programme. They didn't, and the rest is history.