Pleasing no-one can be a virtue

SO the BBC finds itself on Alex Salmond’s wrong side yet again. The corporation’s relationship with the First Minister was not exactly warm to start with, but now it finds itself at the centre of a row, this one between Mr Salmond and the Treasury, over the leaking to the BBC of news that RBS intends to relocate its headquarters to England in the event of Scottish independence.

Speaking at a press conference in Edinburgh, Mr Salmond made the very reasonable point that such market sensitive information should not be released by government officials or ministers before being announced officially to the markets and that the leak must now be investigated by the Cabinet Secretary.

Alluding to what he perceives to be BBC bias, he insisted he was sure the corporation would wish to co-operate with the investigation and drew laughter from a large coterie of Yes supporters when he referred to its “impartial role as public sector broadcaster”.

Even the BBC’s political editor Nick Robinson was heckled.

But none of this is new for the corporation. The power of television being what it is, and given the trust and esteem in which the BBC is widely held by TV audiences, any suspicion of bias or manipulation by the broadcaster is likely to cause apoplexy somewhere.

The BBC’s agenda has always been the subject of speculation. Harold Wilson attacked it repeatedly for a perceived pro-Tory bias during the 1970 General Election campaign but, during Margaret Thatcher’s term of office, relations between Downing Street and Broadcasting House hit a low. Some Tory MPs still suspect it of being a hotbed of lefties.

During the referendum campaign, Yes supporters have accused the BBC of “misguiding” voters, and several hundred protesters staged a demonstration outside its headquarters in June.

But pro-UK supporters have not been happy either. The BBC was roundly attacked in August for staging a debate between Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling with what was perceived to be a largely Yes-supporting audience. Many questioners picked by debate moderator Glenn Campbell asked Mr Darling hostile questions and loudly supported Mr Salmond.

As if all that were not enough for the BBC Scotland complaints department to be dealing with, the corporation found itself mired in further confusion over the make-up of the panel for yesterday’s debate with first-time teenage voters at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow. The politician’s spokesman said earlier in the day that Mr Galloway’s participation had been “vetoed”, though he did take his place on the panel with SNP Deputy Leader Nicola Sturgeon.

The BBC is by no means beyond reproach and its dominant position as a publisher does create difficulties for newspapers such as this one.

It is never going to please everyone, however, and journalists who are vehemently attacked from both sides can usually take it as a sign that they are treading a relatively independent path.