THE BBC is so left-wing that since 2010 its biased reporting has resulted in the election of four successive Conservative governments, the most right-wing Labour administration this century and a far-right party, Reform, leading in the polls.

But despite its abject failure to destroy capitalism, its political and commercial enemies on the right, of whom there are many, aren’t prepared to take any chances.

They sense blood and want to destroy the BBC now they think they have it on its knees.

If they have their way, they’ll have destroyed one of our finest institutions, the UK’s most trusted news organisation and one admired around the world.

Interestingly, though it is slightly less trusted by those on the right, it is still as trusted as major conservative newspapers and is the most popular source of news among both Conservative and Labour voters.

And that’s the problem. In a not-so-brave new world where Fake News is king, where newsrooms are bombarded with millions of press releases, real news has to fight to be heard.

You could even say it’s being silenced to distract from criticism of right-wing politicians or the genocide in Gaza.

Now the King of Fake News, Donald Trump, is himself trying to silence the BBC. Yes, the splicing of his speech by Panorama is indefensible, but what impact did it have? It wasn’t picked up by his team at the time and had no effect on his election.

So why is he going after the BBC? Perhaps he’s been reading the UK’s right-wing press and he’s swallowed their lies that the BBC is rotten to the core and irreparably, institutionally biased.

In truth, between January and August 2025, the BBC was responsible for just 2 per cent of complaints to Ofcom.

There’s been an increase of accusations of BBC bias since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 2023, with critics accusing the corporation of being anti-Israel and pro-Palestine.

The evidence shows the opposite: analysis by the Centre for Media Monitoring of more than 35,000 news stories covered by the BBC reveals despite Gaza suffering 34 times more casualties than Israel, Israeli deaths were given 33 times more coverage per fatality, and significantly more emotive language.

This doesn’t fit the right-wing narrative so, unsurprisingly, wasn’t reported by the right-wing media. Nor, a quick internet search shows, were any of GB News’s breaches of the Ofcom’s broadcasting code.

The right-wing press did, however, triumphantly report the dropping of some charges against the channel for which BBC non-executive director, and former spin doctor for Theresa May, Robbie Gibb acted as an editorial adviser.

You might think the right-wing media, overflowing with prizes for hypocrisy but empty-handed when it comes to integrity, would be shy in attacking the BBC.

But you’d be wrong. In fact, when Nick Robinson, the Today programme presenter and former chair of the Young Conservatives (in 1987 if you’re interested), on Saturday dared to accuse opponents of carrying out a “political campaign” against the BBC, the Mail on Sunday reported Boris Johnson accusing Robinson of “arrogance” and claiming his was a “diversionary tactic.”

But the Mail seems restrained compared to the Telegraph.

Its hysterical anti-BBC coverage on Monday (eight stories published on its home page, next to an opinion piece about the Green Party “wanting more illegal migrants”) maybe explains why it’s struggling to find a buyer.

It appears to be celebrating Trump threatening legal action against the BBC, siding with a megalomaniac autocrat to bring down a great British institution.

But there’s another reason why Trump and our right-wing media are working to destroy the BBC: for years jealous competitors have sought to undermine their publicly funded rival.

For years ITV (whose editor in the late 1990s was Nigel Dacre, the brother of Daily Mail editor Paul) and Sky (which was owned until 2018 by Rupert Murdoch who also, of course, owned the discredited News of the World) persistently attacked the BBC, questioning its integrity and its funding.

Yes, the BBC makes mistakes – just look at its failure to prevent a culture of bullying – but if it’s genuinely institutionally biased against the right, why do its news outlets consistently follow up stories by right-wing newspapers?

Why does Reform (with four MPs) receive almost twice as much coverage as the Lib Dems (with 72 MPs)?

And why, on Question Time’s list of most-invited non-political guests from 2014-2024 are there no leftwingers in the top 13?

My trade union, the NUJ, frequently crosses swords with BBC management so I know it’s not perfect. But it’s worth fighting for because we would all be poorer without the BBC in our lives.

It’s time to rally round the BBC and prevent it becoming a political football, to end political appointments to the board, to end the outsourcing of news and current affairs programmes and give more power — not less — to its journalists, enabling them to continue holding the powerful to account.

Our media landscape is already skewed rightward because of the pre-eminence of the right-wing press (print media is not covered by due impartiality, of course). But where newspapers go, broadcasters tend to follow.

In these divisive, polarised times, the last thing we need is a Fox News tribute act. Instead, we need public service broadcasting more than ever. We need news reporting we can trust, that’s accurate, balanced and accountable. Not partisan and Ofcom-ignoring.

As a neutral broadcaster, of course the BBC is going to rile one side or the other, whatever line it takes.

But be careful what you wish for and before you join in the celebrations of Auntie’s demise, have a look at who you’re joining at the party: Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Kemi Badenoch, Nigel Farage, Kelvin MacKenzie.

Are they impartial? Or are they trying to silence journalists who expose their corruption and incompetence?

Tim Lezard has been a journalist for 38 years and is a former president of the National Union of Journalists. He wrote the NUJ’s Conscience Clause.