A question of trust

Donalda McKinnon, the heidbummer of BBC Scotland, has announced that she’s retiring from the job after just over three years in post. When she took the job in December 2016 she announced that her task was to restore trust in the BBC amongst the Scottish public. So that worked out well, didn’t it.

It was the behaviour of the Corporation during the independence referendum which more than anything destroyed the BBC’s once prized reputation for fairness and impartiality in Scotland. But the rot had set in even before there was any prospect of an independence vote. Back in the 80s and 90s and the early years of this century, the news management at Pacific Quay had an incestously close relationship with the Labour party. Senior members of BBC staff infamously attended the regular lunch meetings held monthly in Glasgow by the disgraced Stephen Purcell, who was at the time the…