As the country once again debates the impartiality of the BBC, Herald columnist Andy Maciver argues that the license fee should be scrapped, that the BBC should operate commercially, and that local and regional news here in Scotland would be the biggest winner.

Impartiality, a bit like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. This week, we are in the midst of another round of national angst over whether the BBC is impartial or biased. This happens more often these days than it did in the past, in large part because the BBC places itself in hot water more often than it did in the past.

The BBC’s public troubles tend to peak as a result of an individual event. Gary Lineker straying away from his football comfort zone to opine on Israel and the Middle East. Maxine Croxall being admonished for changing a script in real time to clarify that pregnancy is unique to women and not ‘people’. And, on this occasion, a speech by President Trump being remarkably edited by amalgamating two sentences from a long speech, spoken nearly an hour apart, making it appear that the President was inciting violence ahead of the January 6th riots.

Frankly, it wouldn’t have been difficult to show the President played a role in that dark day without an edit, but the BBC decided to pick up a shotgun and blow its foot off, just for good measure.

These isolated incidents, understandably, attract all the focus and........

© Herald Scotland