THE Tory and Tory-government-appointed director general of the BBC, has resigned. Sir Tim Davie may well be pleased to be knocked off his perch given the miserable time he has had dealing with the problems that beset our principal state-affiliated media organisation.

The proximate cause is a leaked internal memo which presented a Panorama documentary as making it seem as if Donald Trump directly called for the Maga assault on the US capitol that marked the end of his first term as president.

BBC bosses have the unenviable task of maintaining the elaborate fiction that the organisation is a paragon of journalistic integrity and unwavering objectivity while policing successive waves of criticism. This comes from both a left, which for reasons of state is necessarily marginalised in the coverage of political affairs, and an insurgent right that, despite its impeccable patrician leadership, has chosen to present itself as the representative of a disgruntled citizenry.

Another pressure comes from Israel’s hit squad in public life, who keep the BBC under pressure to present the genocidal apartheid state as an ordinary democracy fighting a “normal” war through relentless accusations of anti-semitic bias.

This newspaper, which appears in the BBC’s output as infrequently as Halley’s Comet crosses the heavens, can reasonably be expected to be critical. But let us strive to be objective.

As an organisation the BBC is staffed by consummate professionals and legions of highly skilled workers. Much of its cultural and entertainment content is world class and puts to shame its more obviously commercial rivals, both here and overseas.

The people who work there are not automatons and among them is a healthy scepticism which, combined with professional pride, has produced a fair measure of internal opposition to their employer’s coverage of the Palestine question.

But it is both an organ of state and a time-served buttress of ruling class hegemony and these are factors which outweigh every other consideration.

In this particular moment the BBC has become the the target of our government circles which, in a manner entirely consistent with their supine relationship to the United States, is acting in conformity with Trump’s prejudices and prerogatives as leader of the “free world.”

It is indeed true that the Panorama clip in question elided two parts of Trump’s speech into a single framing of the Capitol riot he enabled. That it spoke to a wider truth that more accurately represented what Trump, thinks, schemed for and actually did is deemed unimportant if it is necessary to appease the US president.

No-one with an alert and critical mind will fail to make the comparison with the way the BBC represented and reported upon the efforts of Jeremy Corbyn when leader of the Labour Party, and subsequently. These too included the selective editing of his remarks to present them in a particular light.

This is a real crisis for the BBC in which its foundational myths are tested in real life.

To Katie Razzall, the BBC’s media correspondent, we owe a fair measure of respect for her journalism and the scrupulous way she reported these processes which paid respect both to the facts but also the processes under way both within the corporation and in its relationship with those who rule us.

It won’t do her any good to be praised by the world’s only English language socialist daily newspaper but she will have enhanced her reputation among her colleagues.

If the BBC is to gain credibility, its management and direction needs to be more representative of the peoples and nations which it serves and its board needs to include people more in touch with popular sentiment and way people live their lives. This is a task that cannot be entrusted to Westminster Labour but should engage the labour movement.