Whenever the BBC is (often deservedly) criticised for serious ethical failures, there is a deafening silence about the misdemeanours and serial mendacities committed every day by the British plutocrat-owned press. The press is often the first to adopt a completely spurious moral high ground when the failures of the BBC are concerned. Every British government ever since the foundation of the BBC almost a century ago has earnestly desired to control it while paying lip-service to its independence. Since Stanley Baldwin's famous denunciation in 1931 of the 'power without responsibility' of press proprietors, successive prime ministers, particularly from Thatcher onwards, have deemed it essential to be very close to newspaper owners. That is inherently corrupting for both sides.
The penalty which the press pays for lying is almost non-existent. As the Leveson inquiry showed, the press has behaved as if it had permission to invade and destroy the lives of ordinary citizens. By the way, what has happened to Part 2 of the Leveson inquiry ? Would too many vested interests be upset ? It is as if we tacitly accept that the press will never have any ethics, and so we do not judge them by ethical standards ; yet we set very high standards for the BBC, tests which it will inevitably fail to pass at least some of the time.