All the state's protection cannot shield it from the pressures of our times. New technology allows co-ordinated protests from emailers, bloggers and posters on websites. Editors have always built careers on claiming to know what their readers and viewers want. The Net creates the illusion that they can indeed discover with scientific precision that an urgent national mood is swelling, which they must satisfy.
The BBC is particularly vulnerable because it is supposed to be both an impartial and a national broadcaster. The ideal impartial journalist is an essential but unattractive figure. He or she must be bloodless and passionless, never allowing their coverage of controversial stories to sway their emotions and make them commit to one side. Like civil servants, they should be able to maintain an almost inhuman detachment. The national broadcaster, however, should be able to commit and affirm the national mood, which is almost impossible to gauge when new technology allows minorities, often very small minorities, to appear to be the authentic voice of the masses.
Whatever you think of the Gaza Appeal - and I could not see the harm in helping the victims of war as long as the money does not end up in the pockets of clerical fascists - the BBC decided not to broadcast it because it wanted to protect the neutrality of journalists covering a contentious conflict. The result was not an understanding of the difficulties of reporting the Middle East, but a furious reaction not only from the aid agencies, but also from Douglas Alexander and Ben Bradshaw, Labour politicians who need to be told that they have no right to put pressure on free broadcasters. The rage seemed genuine, but deeper examination showed that it was a perfect example of a synthetic Net-led protest. Jean Seaton, an historian of the BBC, pointed out that "at the height of the controversy, the BBC Trust had logged over 20,000 complaints about the decision not to screen an appeal, but the actual number of donations to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal numbered only 13,000."
In other words, the emailing protestors wanted the BBC to validate their emotion that this war was a bad business far more than they wanted to help Palestinians by putting their hands in their pockets. The BBC stood firm, but there is no room for complacency. If it is to be the last serious news provider in Britain - and, God help us, it may well be - it will need to maintain a large staff of journalists, producers and engineers. To afford their journalism, it must therefore cut back on the extraordinary levels of pay for the 50 executives who earn more, often far more, than the Prime Minister, and on the multi-million packages for the stars.
