Most BBC “scandals” are not about the BBC. They are about a political controversy – around nuclear war in 1965, the dirty war against the IRA in 1979, the Falklands, Iraq and David Kelly – consuming the political class, who use the BBC as their magnifying glass, while being largely ignored by everyone else. Then there are the cultural scandals, which draw much more attention – Jimmy Savile and paedophilia, most obviously, or Princess Diana and the Panorama interview. These are moments of BBC turmoil when the nation reflects on itself. The Gary Lineker affair is a new category of...