James Harding arriving for his first day as BBC director of news and current affairs in August 2013 [Image: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images].

There are still far too many out-and-out Tories, and who knows which way the next head of news will lean?

It seems almost certain that person will be chosen because their face fits – among the mass of other Tory faces that infest the BBC newsroom.

Still, he’s going – to start a media company providing “analysis”. Would that be overtly pro-Tory analysis, by any chance, as opposed to the covertly pro-Tory stuff we get at the BBC?

Many of us on the social media will be delighted, considering recent opinions of Mr Harding’s work:

https://twitter.com/louisecoatz/status/917729575815303168

https://twitter.com/ProperDemocrat/status/917868305779757056

They have also displayed a certain cynicism regarding any new candidates for the post he is leaving:

James Harding is to stand down as director of news and current affairs at the BBC and set up a media company that will offer “a clear point of view”, a perspective the impartial corporation is not allowed to provide.

The £340,000-a-year executive had been considered one of the frontrunners to eventually succeed Tony Hall as director general of the BBC, but his sudden departure leaves the director of radio, James Purnell, as the favourite.

Explaining his decision in a letter to staff, Harding wrote: “There is some journalism that the BBC, for all its brilliance, can’t, and probably shouldn’t, do. And that’s what I want to explore: I am going to start a new media company with a distinct approach to the news and a clear point of view.

“I know I will enjoy the chance to do some more journalism of my own and, at such a critical time, I’m seriously excited about the prospect of building a new venture in news.”

It is understood that Harding, who will leave the BBC early next year, has backers for his project and that it will focus on analysis rather than news. The 48-year-old joined the BBC in 2013, having left his previous role as editor of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Times newspaper the year before.

Source: James Harding quits as BBC head of news | Media | The Guardian

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