Buerk: BBC’s too youth-oriented, urban and middle-class

VETERaN broadcaster Michael Buerk has laid into the BBC, saying it has become ‘uniformly young and urban’ with little sympathy for traditional British life.

The 73-year-old has worked for the corporation for nearly 50 years but says it seems ‘a smaller tent’ with a world view based on its well-educated, middle-class employees.

‘Many of today’s generation are brilliant but there are serious implications,’ said the former newsreader. ‘The BBC now seems a smaller tent.

‘It is not deliberately biased but its world view is bound to reflect the collective set of assumptions of those who work for it. These are more uniformly middle-class, well-educated, young, urban and bright, with little experience of – and sometimes little sympathy for – business, industry, the countryside, localness, traditions and politicians.’

When he joined in 1970, Buerk told Radio Times, few of his colleagues had a degree.

‘They were sharp, if not especially clever, but they had the smell of the street about them and an empathy with those in the underprivileged sticks from which most had hailed,’ he added.

a BBC spokesman said: ‘Our charter requires us to provide impartial news for all audiences whether on TV, radio or online, and while some online content will naturally be tailored to younger audiences, we don’t seek to compete with newspapers.’