Another Director-General bites the dust. And the number two with him. What a facepalm. What a honking, stupid, first-day-in-the office sort of error to make. What cost Tim Davie his job, and presents the BBC with its latest existential crisis, was not just an error: it was an unforced error of the most wince-making kind.

Defenders of the BBC regard this as a confected row, a political hit job, and affect outrage that it cost the top man his job. I’m afraid I don’t think it is

Those of us who, in general, think of the BBC as a good thing – and certainly a much better thing than the various privately-owned alternatives – would like to defend it. We’d like to stick up for the rigour of its journalism and its commitment to objectivity. But it doesn’t half make it hard for us sometimes. All t

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