Back in the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher’s government was fighting a war against the domestic BBC, accusing it of being biased for attacking Conservative politicians, of being disloyal for broadcasting Irish terrorists. There were even threats to close down the BBC: why should one have a publicly funded broadcaster if Thatcher believed in market freedom? But now the attacks are aimed not only at the BBC’s impartiality but at the very idea that there is such a thing as impartiality.
