Lewis Goodall, the political editor of Newsnight, will co-star with former colleagues Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel in creating a daily podcast for the multimedia company Global, which owns radio stations including LBC. Goodall was a rising star on the BBC who appeared more and more in the nightly coverage of the company’s election. But instead of staying with the BBC, he decided to join the trade in commercial rivals who could offer more retirement freedom – and more money. Colleagues said Goodall, who submitted a major application to become the BBC’s political editor this year, was disappointed with the way the BBC’s management interpreted Director-General Tim Davie’s attempt for impartiality. The journalist was targeted by Sir Robbie Gibb, a former BBC executive who served as Downing Street communications director under Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May. In 2020, Gibb publicly asked: “Is there anyone more damaging to the BBC’s reputation for impartiality than Lewis Goodall?” Gibb was then appointed to the BBC board by the Tory government and helped launch a series of forthcoming impartial reviews that would examine every aspect of BBC production for possible bias. Tim Davie made impartiality a key element of his field to run the broadcaster and managed to partially reduce the number of critical news reports for his right-wing journalists. But who exactly can define impartiality in top political issues has sometimes been difficult for staff to interpret. Many BBC reporters report increased government pressure on the stories and an overall creepy result, with management guessing down Downing Street objections to important stories. Maitlis was also tired of being told by the administration about violations of the rules of impartiality in her monologues and tweets on Newsnight, while Andrew Marr also resigned from the BBC saying that he wanted to be able to speak more freely. Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST. A BBC news reporter said the issue was not with the rules of impartiality but with how the government used them to intimidate management. “Impartiality must be a liberating concept – it must mean without fear or favor. “Instead, they allow it to be used as a wand to destroy them.” While in the past BBC journalists could not find attractive job offers elsewhere, the boom in podcasts and talk radio means they now have viable alternative careers. The BBC has also recently introduced a requirement that its presenters declare external profits from hosting conferences and awards events, which may be profitable – but has attracted scrutiny for people like Sopel and Marr. Global has no such requirement to oblige its employees to publicly declare their profits as freelancers. Other leading BBC journalists are considering similar offers from commercial rivals, though many remain loyal to a broadcaster that can still offer access to a huge audience far larger than any commercial rival.
