In the wake of the Savile scandal, the BBC has set up an inquiry into its "culture and practices" during Savile's time at the corporation. But important as this is, there is another aspect to the BBC's culture and practices which also needs examination, and which long pre-dates the news of Savile's vile activities.

It is the BBC's work itself; specifically, the bias and prejudices which its journalists bring to their reports. And that means - to be even more specific - its reporting of Israel and the Middle East. While some of its reporters do indeed appear to have an anti-Israel agenda, others think they are being impartial but are caught in group think.

As Andrew Marr has put it: "The BBC is not impartial or neutral… It has a liberal bias, not so much a party political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias." Since the default position of today's liberal left is that Israel is the cause of the Middle East's problems, that is the starting point of their reporting.

There has already been one report into the BBC's Middle East coverage, the infamous Balen Report, which the corporation has spent years - and large amounts of money - hiding from public view. But whatever that found, what is needed is not its technical examination of the details of a few reports, but a thoroughgoing examination of the cultural bias at the BBC.