"Only make the right wing strong." William Rees-Mogg says in this Times article that the BBC is fighting a risky war on two fronts.

"In 1914 and 1941 Germany fought European wars on two fronts and lost both. Now Tony Blair is engaged on a war on two fronts, and so is the BBC. "

And

The BBC is now fighting its own war on two fronts: one front is against Labour, led by Alastair Campbell, the other is against the Tories. The BBC probably retains the confidence of Charles Kennedy. I have spent one-fifth of my working life as a regulator of broadcasting, five years from 1981 to 1986 as Vice-Chairman of Governors of the BBC, and another five from 1988 to 1993 as the first Chairman of the Broadcasting Standards Council. Regulating British broadcasting is like eating a diet of chopped hay, but it does give one some understanding of the situation in which the poor devils of BBC governors now find themselves.

The Tories hate the BBC. Anyone who watched the local election broadcast on May 1 will understand why. The BBC planned the programme on the assumption that the Tories would do badly and would then face a leadership crisis. An obscure Tory back-bencher, Crispin Blunt, was to be the Guy Fawkes of the leadership conspiracy, and chose that day for his now forgotten attack on Iain Duncan Smith. The BBC had prepared the evening’s story as “Tory defeat — leadership crisis”. Unfortunately for them, the Tories were not defeated and a leadership crisis did not occur. Yet the BBC ploughed dismally on, hailing every Tory victory as a setback. The coverage was not impartial; it was not professional.

The two top men in the BBC, Gavyn Davies, the Chairman and Greg Dyke, the Director-General, are both seen as “Tony’s cronies”. In practice, they had, from Tony Blair’s point of view, “gone native”. They are BBC men, not Tony’s men. But that has not changed the Conservative belief that the sympathies of the BBC are Centre Left, not Centre Right. The BBC occupies the broadcasting slot which The Guardian occupies in print. The Conservatives believe that the BBC has an anti-Conservative bias.

At present, Labour, or at least the administration, is equally angry with the BBC.

(I admit it. The reference to Schlieffen's dying words only appears to be relevant due to the coincidental double meaning of the word "right." Still, if the BBC wants to fight a war on two fronts, perhaps they should heed the sortes vergilianae that these words on the subject afford. I'd guess the sortes gave passable advice once you were alert to the possibility that you might be in need of advice.)

[Via Au currant.]

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