I think it's more that the BBC has been co-opted by Tories.
Its Political Programmes Editor, Robbie Gibb, left to become May's Director of Communications, where he's said to be a particularly rabid Brexiter even in that environment. He's only the latest example of what's been labelled a "revolving door" between the corporation and the Tory Party and right-wing or centre-right newspapers.
And even those who've stayed put have betrayed their bias. John Humphrys, long-time host of the Today morning news programme that explicitly seeks to set the day's news agenda, has been censured for bias and his hectoring style in his interviews with guests. Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg was also found by the BBC Trust to have broken its guidelines on impartiality and accuracy. Figures like Nick Robinson have a history of Tory Party membership, and the guests invited on to panels often veer to the right.
Alison Fuller Pedley, who in her post at Mentorn Media is responsible for picking the audience for Question Time, has been "reminded" about BBC guidelines after sharing Facebook posts by Britain First over an extended period.
The BBC's panels for such shows themselves have given far more prominence to the likes of Farage than would have been warranted by his then party UKIP's standing in the polls, to the extent that he could be seen as a BBC media creation. And just this last week, his launch of his "new" party was the number one BBC headline on a day that wasn't short of news.
Back in 2013, academic research funded by the BBC Trust itself found that contrary to accusations of "liberal bias" in the likes of the Telegraph, "the evidence from the research is clear. The BBC tends to reproduce a Conservative, Eurosceptic, pro-business version of the world, not a left-wing, anti-business agenda."
Since then, the BBC Trust, chaired by Chris Patten from 2011 to 2014, has lost its regulatory role to Ofcom (whose own leadership skews rich and establishment) and its governance role has been transferred to the BBC Board, chaired by Sir David Clementi, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, among many other of his big business posts.
The governing board of an organization that is supposed to serve the British public, charged with safeguarding its independence, is heavily skewed to wealth and privilege. Couple this with constant threats to the BBC Charter and funding through the licence fee, and it's hardly a setup from which we can expect a radical outlook on politics and serious, consistent holding to account of the party in power.
The mess around Brexit has meant that even within these limits its coverage has had to be critical of the government, but always within certain bounds that fail to challenge to root of the malaise, and usually in ways that present the whole of governance - opposition and all - as deeply dysfunctional. Which it is, but cynicism that doesn't point to any way things could be improved and actively encourages stupid, flashy, often unchallenged soundbites from politicians and the latest darlings of the news cycle does nothing to encourage engagement among the public.
The rot isn't confined to domestic coverage, as you mention. I've been a keen follower of American politics, and some years ago, during the Obama era, grew increasingly frustrated with its coverage of US politics. BBC news used to be the pride of the world. Now, a lone guy with a laptop and too much time on his hands has repeatedly found himself shouting at the TV or radio that a story that's been headlining for the last 24 hours has already been debunked. And look at the US pundits the BBC often calls on for interviews - the likes of Sebastian Gorka and John Bolton (before he took up post under Trump) trotted out over the years, when there's no shortage of experts readily available who could offer far more incisive and unbiased commentary.
It seems like the more you know about an issue, the more threadbare the BBC's current affairs coverage appears.
I like to come away from a news programme feeling like I've been informed, challenged even, and stimulated. That seldom happens with the BBC nowadays. I still find points of divergence, which is healthy, but it happens more and more often with Channel 4's output.
(I'm also a Jon Snow fanboy, just so I have all my cards on the table! I often say he's the David Attenborough of current affairs.)
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