With the broadcaster under attack on all sides and accusations flying of falling standards, our Writer at Large Neil Mackay looks at what’s gone wrong and why

THE BBC should take the removal of Kaye Adams as an opportunity to reimagine itself.

Adams was accused of inappropriate behaviour. It’s said she called a colleague a c**t, and threw a pen at a producer. Reports claim she “shouted and screamed” at staff. Her show, for which she received up to £155,000 a year, is now axed.

The programme was dreadful. It summed up everything that’s wrong with BBC Scotland: low-brow at best, and clickbait at worst; more interested in sensation than fact. It was guilty of journalism’s cardinal sin: wanting to be the story.

It set the tone for BBC Scotland’s decrepit output. Whilst the BBC across Britain has serious problems, the broadcaster nationally has at least some elegance and intelligence. BBC Scotland is like the bumpkin neighbour, often merely embarrassing.

BBC Scotland has many more uncomfortable questions to answer, though, than failures in tone and style. SNP culture secretary Angus Robertson has accused the BBC of “misleading” viewers and “misreporting” news. He believes the broadcaster has a “systemic problem” with its Scottish reporting.

Robertson’s criticism should be approached with two thoughts in mind: first, he’s an SNP minister and there is no love lost between the party and the BBC; second, he’s a former BBC reporter so knows of what he speaks.

Kaye Adams has now left BBC Scotland (Image: BBC)

Robertson focused on three key issues: misreporting the Scottish budget; the failure by Radio 4’s flagship show Today to report on the budget; and the failure in reporting to differentiate between Scotland and England on issues like student funding.

Robertson spoke to the BBC’s director-general Tim Davie about the budget. Robertson said that Davie “agreed the matter was so serious I should speak with the head of news, and the editor of [Today], who both conceded that both examples were a failure”.

The BBC is in such a calamitous state across the board that attempts to find a replacement for Davie, who is........

© Herald Scotland