Nick Pollard claims top shows are 'one-paced' and 'predictable', and corporation is too often swayed by pressure groups
Nick Pollard, the former head of Sky News who led the investigation into the Jimmy Savile scandal, has criticised the BBC's handling of news as "committee-driven" and "one-paced".
Pollard, who spent close to 30 years working for in news for organisations including the BBC, Sky and ITN, said that corporation lacks the cut-and-thrust of its rivals.
"Within the BBC there is a tendency to approach news as a sort of committee-driven process," he said, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Media Show on Wednesday.
"Other places, Sky or ITN, [are] very ideas-driven places. If you have a good idea someone will say 'That's great – let's do it.' I get the sense that if you have a really good, bright idea that no one else has thought of in a BBC newsroom someone will say 'Let's have a think about that, we have a planning meeting coming up either this afternoon or next week we'll see what the planning committee think about that.' That is a slight caricature but that is the sense that I get. I think you can see that on air and hear it on radio as well".
Pollard added that flagship programmes such as the BBC News at Ten and Breakfast News may attract bigger audiences than rivals but they are "one-paced" and "very predictable".
"The principal fault is that [the BBC's news] is very predictable," he said. "It tends to be one-paced. Nothing ever surprises you ... it just runs on".
He also added his voice to those who have expressed concern that the BBC is too often swayed by pressure groups.
"There is a slight tendency to naivety to some of the coverage, particularly home news stories," he said. "I get the impression as a viewer watching some BBC output that they are slightly too keen on latching on to pressure groups, special interest groups [and say] 'here is a case study that will support our case'. I think the [other news organisations] are slightly happier looking at lateral ways to approach news stories."
Earlier this week the Centre for Policy Studies published a report that found the BBC is twice as likely to cover leftwing policy proposals than those that are rightwing.
The report, Bias at the Beeb, claimed to be the "first statistical evidence of the bias".
The corporation issued a statement on Wednesday night defending its news output.
"BBC News provides impartial and independent coverage to a quarter of a billion people across the world," said a BBC spokeswoman. "[They don't] provide concrete evidence to back up their claims or publish the full methodology used – although they do point to references to searches on Wikipedia."
She also questioned the impartiality of the right-of-centre thinktank's report, arguing that the CPS argues that the BBC should be smaller and "campaigns against the licence fee".
"The CPS claims to have found bias in the way we describe thinktanks," she said. "We use descriptions to help our audiences understand more about each think tank and think carefully about the words used. They haven't published their own definitions for describing the think tanks concerned."
Last month it emerged that Helen Boaden, the BBC's former news director, admitted that she found the corporation held a "deep liberal bias" in its coverage of immigration when she took up the role in 2004.
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Nick Pollard, the former head of Sky News who led the investigation into the Jimmy Savile scandal, has criticised the BBC's handling of news as "committee-driven" and "one-paced".
Pollard, who spent close to 30 years working for in news for organisations including the BBC, Sky and ITN, said that corporation lacks the cut-and-thrust of its rivals.
"Within the BBC there is a tendency to approach news as a sort of committee-driven process," he said, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Media Show on Wednesday.
"Other places, Sky or ITN, [are] very ideas-driven places. If you have a good idea someone will say 'That's great – let's do it.' I get the sense that if you have a really good, bright idea that no one else has thought of in a BBC newsroom someone will say 'Let's have a think about that, we have a planning meeting coming up either this afternoon or next week we'll see what the planning committee think about that.' That is a slight caricature but that is the sense that I get. I think you can see that on air and hear it on radio as well".
Pollard added that flagship programmes such as the BBC News at Ten and Breakfast News may attract bigger audiences than rivals but they are "one-paced" and "very predictable".
"The principal fault is that [the BBC's news] is very predictable," he said. "It tends to be one-paced. Nothing ever surprises you ... it just runs on".
He also added his voice to those who have expressed concern that the BBC is too often swayed by pressure groups.
"There is a slight tendency to naivety to some of the coverage, particularly home news stories," he said. "I get the impression as a viewer watching some BBC output that they are slightly too keen on latching on to pressure groups, special interest groups [and say] 'here is a case study that will support our case'. I think the [other news organisations] are slightly happier looking at lateral ways to approach news stories."
Earlier this week the Centre for Policy Studies published a report that found the BBC is twice as likely to cover leftwing policy proposals than those that are rightwing.
The report, Bias at the Beeb, claimed to be the "first statistical evidence of the bias".
The corporation issued a statement on Wednesday night defending its news output.
"BBC News provides impartial and independent coverage to a quarter of a billion people across the world," said a BBC spokeswoman. "[They don't] provide concrete evidence to back up their claims or publish the full methodology used – although they do point to references to searches on Wikipedia."
She also questioned the impartiality of the right-of-centre thinktank's report, arguing that the CPS argues that the BBC should be smaller and "campaigns against the licence fee".
"The CPS claims to have found bias in the way we describe thinktanks," she said. "We use descriptions to help our audiences understand more about each think tank and think carefully about the words used. They haven't published their own definitions for describing the think tanks concerned."
Last month it emerged that Helen Boaden, the BBC's former news director, admitted that she found the corporation held a "deep liberal bias" in its coverage of immigration when she took up the role in 2004.
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@guardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 hours ago.