BBC chief quizzed on failings in Scotland
Corporation not connecting with majority of audience
THE boss of BBC Scotland has admitted he is ‘ concerned’ by research showing the Corporation is failing more than half its audience.
Ken MacQuarrie told MPs he was studying the damning findings about the BBC’s failure to connect with many viewers and listeners.
But he dismissed persistent claims that the BBC demonstrated ‘unconscious bias’ during its coverage of last year’s independence referendum.
In July, the BBC’s annual report found 48 per cent of Scots believe the BBC is good at representing their l i ves through news and current affairs, compared with 61 per cent in England, 61 per cent in Northern Ireland and 55 per cent in Wales.
Mr MacQuarrie, director of BBC Scotland, admitted the figure is ‘not something we are comfortable with’ when questioned yesterday by MPs on Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee.
He was pressed on the issue by committee chairman, Nationalist MP Pete Wishart.
Mr Wishart said: ‘Aren’t you profoundly disappointed in the findings of your own survey to show less than half of the Scottish people are unhappy about the way the BBC is presenting Scottish life?
‘That should really be having all sorts of alarm bells ringing, surely.’
Mr MacQuarrie said: ‘I’m absolutely concerned by that figure. I’m determined to understand the figure and change it and to produce a programme offer that meets the needs of the audience in Scotland.
‘So I take a very positive attitude towards addressing that audience need and making sure we do it well.’
He added: ‘We are in the process of understanding what’s driving that difference between ourselves and the other nations.
‘It’s a key objective to meet the needs of the audience with a news and current affairs service that is both relevant to their lives but also appreciated by the audience.’
Chris Law, Nationalist MP for Dundee West, questioned Mr MacQuarrie on research by Professor John Robertson, author of a University of the West of Scotland report on BBC and ITV coverage of the referendum.
Professor Robertson concluded there was evidence of coverage ‘ which seems l i kely t o have damaged the Yes campaign’.
Mr MacQuarrie said he did not accept the suggestion put by Mr Law that there was unconscious bias in the BBC’s coverage.
He added: ‘We have engaged with Professor Robertson’s research. We have some criticisms of some of the methodology Professor Robertson used, but we do listen very carefully to our audience in terms of any aspects of dissatisfaction.’
In August, Alex Salmond criticised former BBC political editor Nick Robinson, calling his coverage of the referendum campaign ‘embarrassing’ and a ‘disgrace’. The broadcaster accused Mr Salmond of being anti-English in his attacks on the ‘metropolitan media’.
Mr MacQuarrie’s comments come after it emerged BBC Scotland had hired its first ‘poet in residence’, who will be paid £4,000 of licence payers’ money to produce only 12 poems.
Rachel McCrum is an avowed Scottish independence supporter, raising questions over whether the Corporation risks undermining its supposed political neutrality.