Outgoing BBC political editor Nick Robinson has accused former First Minister Alex Salmond of trying to control the Corporation’s political coverage.
The broadside is the latest twist in the long-running spat between the two men, who first clashed during last year’s independence referendum.
Writing in The Guardian, Mr Robinson responded to claims made by Mr Salmond in his Courier column on Monday that the journalist, who he called “auld Nick”,should be “embarrassed and ashamed” of his work in the run-up to September 18.
Mr Salmond also said he had not commented earlier because of Mr Robinson’s cancer diagnosis.
Mr Robinsonhit back at claims the BBChas produced “Pravda-like” propaganda during the referendum.
He said:”Salmond’s assertion that the BBC is a state broadcaster that dances to a tune written by the Whitehall and Westminster establishment is wrong. History shows that. ‘If only it were so’ would have been the response of all those prime ministers who clashed with it in the past.
“Let’s leave aside how seriously we should take any comparison between the BBC’s high journalistic standards, which are recognised around the world, and Russian state broadcasting and focus on his serious underlying point. It is summed up in that word “control”.
The row began over a report on the BBC where Mr Robinson claimedMr Salmond failed to answer a question at a press conference.
Mr Robinson said: “I have repeatedly and publicly expressed my regret for wording a news report badly to suggest that Salmond hadn’t answered a question when I meant to say that he’d tried to avoid answering it to focus on something he preferred to talk about.”
The full exchange can be viewed below:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=K_XhTALHQzI%3Fshowinfo%3D0
The BBC journalist added: “When I spoke in Edinburgh recently I warned of the dangers of replacing impartial if sometimes imperfect broadcast news with the ‘echo chamber’ of Twitter or a UK version of Fox News which allows people to read and hear only what they already agree with.
“These are important debates about the future of something very valuable public service broadcasting. They matter much more than the former first minister and me locking antlers like ageing rutting stags about what happened a year ago.”