Paul Mason comes to Alex Salmond’s defence over BBC bias

With Alex Salmond currently engaged in a war of words with Nick Robinson over the BBC’s ‘disgraceful’ coverage of the Scottish referendum, there is one former Beeb employee he can turn to in his time of need. Step forward Paul Mason. Mason — who worked as Newsnight‘s economics editor before defecting to Channel 4 — joined Salmond on stage at the Edinburgh book festival to plant a few blows in the direction of his ex-employer. Despite pleas from Nicola Sturgeon for the BBC to enhance its presence in Scotland with a BBC Scotland TV channel, the PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future author said the BBC’s unionist values were part and parcel of the corporation:

‘I’m absolutely sure that the BBC believes it is a unionist institution. It thinks if Scotland becomes independent there is no provision for a Scottish independent BBC so in its DNA it’s a product of this polity.’

Mason went on to hint that the corporation is not diverse enough, with its more senior staff often belonging to the same social set:

‘I have this theory about the BBC, that what most people don’t like about it is to do with the social group from which its managers and senior people are recruited.’

Happily, he was all praise for his current employer, pointedly adding that he is now able to report more freely about Gaza, Scotland and Greece. Steerpike can’t argue with the latter; earlier this summer, Mason caused furore after he accused an anonymous critic of the Syriza government of being a ‘Nazi collaborator’.