I absolutely agree with this. Institutional culture does make a huge difference, and I greatly admire institutions that can encourage more open behaviour.
But even when encouraged, it still takes a lot of bravery, especially when a beneficiary of the bad behaviour is the department that you’re working with your friends and colleagues. (Report foreign bribery, watch you lose the business to the Chinese, have the department close, etc.) It’s really tough when truly the public interest is to have your department shut down and everyone let go, so that money can be spent more effectively elsewhere.
I’ll say that in the cases that I’ve witnessed where I though there should be better disclosure to the customer (nothing even remotely criminal, but deviations from the most moral approach), the pressure has come from the bottom far more often than from the top. (Often, because the top is being kept in the dark as well.)
In this case, I think it vastly more likely (although the narrative is much less compelling) that people reasonably high up in the BBC don’t want to go down in history as the person who allowed the Conservatives to destroy the BBC after it got sued by some of the most powerful people in the world for libel.
Far better to spend a few days getting all your ducks lined up, and let some other news organization go into the firing line first. “Playing it safe” may not be great journalism, but it’s pretty easy to justify to oneself as protecting thousands of BBC employees (and coincidentally, your job as well…).
Obviously, I approve of every effort to make institutions more responsible. Where I differ (I think) from Corey is that I dislike the demonization of those making decisions that are in many cases (obviously, criminal behaviour aside) are likely the same decisions that we here would make if placed in the same position.
After all, if, as part of the global 1%, we’re not making moral self-sacrificing decisions to benefit the rest of the world, why one earth would we assume that we’d suddenly be willing to do so if we’re part of the global 0.1%?
Again, I’m all in favour of pushing for better - after all, it is our moral obligation towards society. But I expect those who share my beliefs to be self-aware enough of their own instincts and behaviour to be less judgemental of that same behaviour in others, even as they seek to improve it.
