“A crisis of trust at the BBC”

The BBC is weathering one of the fiercest storms in its modern history. The now-infamous Prescott memo, an “egregious” Trump edit, open rows over coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict, and bitter battles about sex and gender have left Britain’s national broadcaster facing accusations of bias from every direction.

But is this just another skirmish in the Beeb’s long and noisy war with its critics – or has something deeper gone wrong inside the corporation once trusted above all others?

That’s the question explored in the latest episode of Fearless Diversity, where psychological safety specialist Rachel Cashman joins broadcaster, writer and veteran BBC contributor Simon Fanshawe to ask what the turmoil really reveals about power, leadership and culture inside Britain’s biggest media institution.

Drawing on Simon’s decades writing and presenting BBC programmes and Rachel’s work with leaders under intense scrutiny, the pair dissect the growing crisis from every angle.

They explore:

· What the leaked Prescott memo uncovers – from the Trump editing debacle to the shifting coverage of Gaza, Israel, and the gender debate.

· How cost-cutting, centralised editorial “hubs” and tight internal controls may have narrowed the breadth of voices and opinions on air.

· Why two things can co-exist: that many have had fulfilling, proud careers inside the BBC while serious questions about its impartiality and internal culture remain unanswered.

· The chilling effect of reported instructions not to question the board – and why any “don’t ask” culture is a red flag in modern leadership.

· How institutions truly lose trust: not when they admit mistakes, but when they spin, minimise or defend instead of confronting uncomfortable truths.

Rachel unveils her FEARLESS crisis framework – a model for organisations in trouble – and applies it directly to the BBC, suggesting bold steps the broadcaster must take to rebuild its credibility.

Simon, meanwhile, delivers the uncomfortable verdict: that the deeper failure is one of journalism itself. The Director-General, he argues, must act first and foremost as editor-in-chief – and ensure editors lead with impartiality, serving the audience, not their own opinions.

Together they make the case for renewing the BBC’s founding purpose: that public service broadcasting still matters, that opinions should never become the story, and that courage and transparency are the lifeblood of any institution hoping to retain public trust.

For anyone steering organisations through controversy, managing reputational risk, or simply trying to make sense of what’s happened to the nation’s broadcaster, this is an unmissable listen.

For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator

For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On November 1st at about 7o’clock a man, now identified as Anthony Williams, is alleged to have stabbed eleven people on a train from Doncaster to Kings Cross. The grainy footage showed that he was black. And up went a racist balloon. Long before anyone knew anymore about him, the tweets were out. He was a terrorist, an asylum seeker……and from others that he was “British born”.

This week Rachel and Simon unpack how fear, social media dynamics, and confirmation bias turn these tragedies into fuel on the fires of the culture-wars. How transparent should the police be about reporting the ethnicity of alleged perpetrators? Why do people prefer to confirm their own prejudices – literally to pre-judge – before waiting for the facts? What does academic research tell us about how easily swayed we are to see racism, sexism by or, in the other, view terrorism or issues with immigration and assumptions about race? How does jumping to those conclusions poison our ability at work to interrupt distorted narratives and creating the safety, clarity, and accountability that real dialogue requires form us to get along or work together. And what can a chippy in North Leeds give us about how to do that?

Advisory: contains discussion of racism and violent incidents. Ongoing legal proceedings are referenced without speculation.

Sonia Sodha’s column My column for @TheNewWorldmag on what lies behind the rise of racism in politics

https://shorturl.at/JpBWh

Simon’s article about Kate Clancy in the New Statesman

https://shorturl.at/wRqpC

Is Britain becoming more violent? - A look at the data

By Fraser Nelson

https://shorturl.at/MZHdL

Leeds chippy batters down faith barriers

https://shorturl.at/DEtE3

Kate Clanchy - Uncancelled at last Four years on, are we any wiser?

https://shorturl.at/0qNjO

Kids, critics and the courage of Kate Clanchy

By Victoria Smith

https://tinyurl.com/3e25u8ns

Rutgers research

Instructing Animosity: How DEI Pedagogy Produces The Hostile Attribution Bias

https://tinyurl.com/28hjwmp2

For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator

For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When HR leaders become the organisation’s emotional shock absorbers, who absorbs the shock for them and how do we keep culture lawful, human, and high performing?

In a post-pandemic world of blurred boundaries, rising neurodiversity needs and intensifying polarisation, HR leaders are being asked to carry it all: grief, grievance, and the governance. In this episode, we explore how to move from process-heavy firefighting to relational leadership and creating genuine psychological safety (not a “corporate cuddle”), maintaining accountability, and staying squarely within the law.

What do people want from their jobs in 2025 vs. what the job requires, we ask: how do leaders regulate fear, rebuild trust, and re-set the contract at work? If you’re holding pain, policy, and performance all at once, this one’s for you.

With deep respect for HR leaders and a mindset for legality, proportionality, and public interest. We separate psychological safety from well-being, agency from entitlement, and accountability from punishment. And we’ll offer practical moves to help HR step out of constant rescue mode and lead as strategic partners without become trapped in procedure.

For more about Rachel: Who Is The Fearless Facilitator? - Fearless Facilitator

For more about Simon: Who We Are – Diversity by Design

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.