It was an unusual comment for a Culture Secretary to make even if it was ‘just said in passing’.

It came during an interview by Amol Rajan with Lucy Frazer MP on Radio Four’s Today programme at 07.33 on 22nd January. The peg was her announcement that morning that as part of the mid-term review of the BBC’s Charter, Ofcom would be given powers to regulate BBC content online..

Answering a question which was actually about the impartiality or otherwise of the GB News channel, Ms Frazer pivoted to say that the BBC had covered her policy statement ‘in different ways so far that morning’. Challenged by him to clarify what she meant she said  ‘i just happened to notice, which I just said in passing, the way it has been chopped up during the course of the morning, has sometimes put the BBC’s perspective forward, sometimes put the  Government’s perspective forward, I just thought that was an interesting remark’.

‘Fascinating’ replied Rajan before ending the interview.

Listening back to the hour and a half of the Today programme which preceded the interview I could find nothing which amounted to ‘chopping up’ her statement other than the journalistic craft of summarising long documents in an accessible way.

So in Today’s news bulletin at 0600, the news summary at 0630 and the Culture correspondent’s report in the 0700 bulletin there were references to the DCMS statement about extending  Ofcom’s powers of regulation to include BBC online content and also the BBC’s response.  I could see no bias in the way this was presented. 

What was more noticeable about the BBC coverage that morning was the contrast with its counterparts on ITV  and Sky News. 

In an article in the Daily Telegraph to accompany her announcement, the Culture Secretary wrote: ‘audience perception that the BBC is not sufficiency impartial is an ongoing issue and it is clear more can be done’.

This line was picked up in the review of the papers at 06.09 but not in any of the news bulletins or, most importantly, with Ms Frazer in the interview. Instead Amol Rajan spent much of the interview asking about the future of the licence fe, a subject not covered in the Government’s announcement. Conscious of this, half way through the interview the Culture Secretary pivoted to the issues raised in  her statement.But still Rajan did not pick up on her comments in the Telegraph.

By contrast Kay Burley on Sky News asked Ms Frazer if she shared the view, alleged to be held by viewers, that the BBC was not sufficiently impartial. Ms Frazer replied: “I think that on occasions it has been biased.

“We have seen recently it’s had to apologise for its own reporting in relation to the attack on the hospital in Gaza”.

When asked for evidence of bias and whether the BBC’s story was biased or a mistake, Ms Frazer struggled. “The evidence of bias is what audiences believe is the content of the BBC”. She believed perception was evidence.

There was a similar exchange with Susannah Reid on ITV Good Morning Britain.