Thanks to Sunny at Pickled Politics for this quote from Peter Horrocks, the head of BBC News at the BBC:

So, the days of middle-of-the-road, balancing left and right, impartiality are dead. Instead I believe we need to consider adopting what I like to think of as a much wider “radical impartiality” – the need to hear the widest range of views –all sides of the story.
So we need more Taleban interviews, more BNP interviews – of course put on air with due consideration – and the full range of moderate opinions. All those views need to be treated with the same level of sceptical inquiry and respect.

The notion that the views of the the BNP did not deseve the same respect and analysis as those the New Labour or any other party have always eluded me.  It is not straightforward, and the difference between lunacy and mainstream if often based on nothing more complex than how many people believe in something.

But I have always belived that the most honest way for a public (minded?) broad(narrow)caster to tackle an issue is to open it to public scrutiny. To trust the audience.
If that’s radical then it’s proof that the BBC has been far from radical for many decades. If so, what are we paying for? Mundanity?