“In my many years of making editorial calls across the BBC, this is as tough as it gets.” Those were the words of Tim Davie when he addressed the BBC’s employees on June 11 amid simmering discontent over Gaza. He could not have known then that it was about to get a whole lot harder.
The director general has endured a brutal week after the UK national broadcaster live-streamed scenes of Glastonbury act Bob Vylan chanting “death to the IDF” and moaning about “working for f***ing Zionists,” despite producers acknowledging before the festival that the punk band was at “high risk” of offending viewers.
The avoidable editorial error collided with Channel 4 broadcasting Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, a documentary that the BBC formally scotched just days earlier amid a rancorous dispute over the impartiality of the filmmakers involved in telling the stories of warzone medics. It aired Wednesday night on Channel 4 to a strong set of reviews.
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In the background, there is the unresolved matter of another documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone. The documentary, aired in February, is expected to be the subject of an excoriating internal review coming next week after it was narrated by the child of a Hamas minister. This important fact was not declared to viewers.
Just one of these controversies would be enough to test the resolve of any BBC director general. Three in quick succession has led to searching questions about whether Davie has got a handle on the Gaza-related issues roiling his workforce and audiences. An exasperated Lisa Nandy, the UK minister responsible for the BBC, put it like this: “When you have one editorial failure, it’s something that must be gripped. When you have several, it becomes a problem of leadership.”
The culture secretary’s broadside was unusual and inevitably led to questions over whether Davie can survive the storm. One insider said his position was “untenable,” while another reckoned it was “game over.” A third concurred and said the fact that Davie was in attendance at Glastonbury on the day the Bob Vylan controversy happened only makes things worse.
An answer came on Thursday, when BBC chair Samir Shah said Davie enjoys the confidence of the board, despite the BBC allowing Bob Vylan unfettered freedom to express “unconscionable antisemitic views,” which are now the subject of a police investigation. “The board fully supports the director-general and the swift actions taken by him and his team to identify these errors and address them,” said Shah, while being simultaneously critical of what had taken place.
Davie, who is approaching his fifth anniversary as DG, is said to be severely wounded by the procession of scandals, which, as can be seen by our timeline below, have been constant since October 7, 2023. There is a growing sense that another major error on his watch could be lethal. In a conflict that is so fraught to cover, in which foreign journalists do not have access to the site where the story is unfolding, who would bet against such a misstep?
One employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, believes Davie’s tenure could stand or fall on whether authorities throw the book at Bob Vylan over alleged hate speech. “He is [in trouble] if the police decide to charge,” this person said. A former BBC colleague of Davie’s, who used to work closely with him, said the police investigation “will influence the mood music of all this, despite being separate [from the BBC].”
During a conflict that has opened up yawning divisions, many are united by the idea that the BBC is getting it wrong on Gaza. Depending on who you speak to, the corporation is either in cahoots with antisemitic terrorists or is run by Israeli stooges, determined to paper over alleged war crimes. Both things cannot be true at the same time, but the debate rages on.
“The younger staff are with [Bob Vylan],” said a senior employee who is sympathetic to the idea that the BBC has an anti-Israel bias. On the other side, some examine the BBC’s decision to drop Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, helmed by Emmy-winner Ramita Navai, and conclude that the corporation has caved to the pro-Israel agenda. One person argued the BBC had “crossed a line into censorship.”
The BBC has been holding its hands up to mistakes, but senior figures at the corporation have blamed constant unrest over output on social media bubbles. “When people come out of that quite polarized environment … and meet BBC content, which is striving to be impartial, they can feel that it is an attack on their values,” BBC News CEO Deborah Turness told staff last month.
With Davie’s position being questioned, an influential lawmaker advised the director general to appoint a “wingman” editorial trouble shooter, particularly as he is not a journalist by background. This person said Mark Thompson, the CNN chief who once ran the BBC, used his deputy Mark Byford in this capacity, but the role of second-in-command has since fallen out of fashion.
A former BBC board member contested that Davie is “no less in control” than any of his predecessors, while his former colleague, quoted earlier, said the criticism was “harsh” because “even though mistakes were made, that’s the nature of creative endeavor in a controversial space.”
Others think that if questions about his leadership start to color political negotiations about the BBC’s future, it will be difficult to keep Davie in post. “I think he could be nearing the end of his luck,” an employee warned. “It’s been a bad run and it’s starting to impact charter renewal.”
On Davie’s watch: a timeline of scandals since October 7
Oct 2023 – Within days of the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the BBC finds itself under intense pressure from even the highest echelons of government to refer to Hamas as “terrorists” in its news coverage, pressure that the corporation refuses to bow to. Under questioning from the Conservative Party’s influential 1922 Committee, Tim Davie urges lawmakers to put themselves in the shoes of a Palestinian civilian.
Jan 2024 – Davie holds “listening meetings” with staff as the broadcaster seeks to address internal unrest over perceived bias in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. These will by no means be the only meetings it holds with staff on the matter.
Early Feb 2024 – Just 24 hours after we report on these “listening meetings,” Deadline reveals that a senior BBC schedule co-ordinator, Dawn Queva, had posted a string of vitriolic, antisemitic diatribes on social media including reference to a “holohoax.” Queva leaves her role shortly afterwards.
Mid Feb 2024 – The BBC bows to a torrent of pressure from Jewish staffers and groups by cutting scenes of an Apprentice contestant from the You’re Fired companion show. Dr Asif Munaf had previously posted on social media that “Zionists” are a “godless satanic cult.” Appearing to reference Queva and Munaf, Davie acknowledges “antisemitic behavior by people who worked with us” in an internal note that attempts to rebuild relations with Jewish staffers.
June 2024 – More than 100 Jewish industry figures sign an open letter to Davie expressing “disbelief” at the decision to engage cricket World Cup commentator Qasim Sheikh, who was accused of fanning antisemitism on social media. Sheikh subsequently apologizes. Our deep dive later that month reveals employment disputes, “egregious” letters, and editorial errors.
Oct 2024 – A report that used AI to analyze nine million words of BBC output unearths a “deeply worrying pattern of bias” against Israel, although the BBC strongly questions the authenticity of the report.
Feb 2025 – The BBC becomes mired in scandal once again after airing a documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, which was subsequently revealed to have featured the son of a Hamas minister. The dispute angers both sides of the debate and a review will be published imminently.
May 2025 – Controversial Match of the Day host Gary Lineker is forced to exit the BBC after sharing a video featuring a cartoon rat – an antisemitic trope. Davie says of the ex-soccer player who previously caused the corporation to rip up and rewrite its social media guidelines: “Gary has acknowledged the mistake he made. Accordingly, we have agreed he will step back from further presenting.”
June 2025 – Fresh off the back of the Gaza Warzone doc controversy, a second documentary, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, is formally dropped by the BBC because “broadcasting this material risked creating a perception of partiality.” Channel 4 picks up the doc. The succession of scandals crescendoes to cause internal revolt.
July 2025 – Davie apologizes to the Jewish community following the Bob Vylan Glastonbury fiasco, which saw the controversial punk duo remain on air after chanting “death to the IDF” and complaining about working for a “f***ing Zionist.”
More to come? – The Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone report could drop any day now, which may lead to a fresh set of allegations and more problems for Davie.