The new culture secretary is lecturing the BBC on diversity – and the timing couldn’t be more curious

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It’s almost too precious.

Oliver Dowden, the new culture secretary has, speaking with his master’s voice, stepped out to take some potshots at the BBC.

In a speech at the Enders Media and Telecoms Conference, Dowden called for “genuine diversity” at Auntie Beeb. That statement could rival some of the corporation's best comedy shows were the Tory Party’s direction of travel here not so serious.

Dowden could have come from Tory Central casting. A middle-aged, upper-middle-class, able-bodied white bloke coming from a largely middle-aged, upper-middle class, able-bodied while cabinet; the only way he stands out from that crowd is that he’s in the minority who were state-educated before he joined up with his political fellow travellers at Oxbridge.

But, of course, it’s a different sort of diversity he’s interested in, one of “thought and experience” from an institution with a “narrow urban outlook”.

So more Corbynistas who’ve been similarly unhappy over their treatment by the Beeb, right?

Of course not. Coming from a cabinet from which independent thought and experience have been ruthlessly expunged, what he means is more Boris Johnson thought and experience. A few more posh presenters – as if there weren’t already enough – ready to berate dastardly Eurocrats and shout Britain! Britain! Britain! and Boris! Boris! Boris! at every opportunity.

What’s this? You guys are going to listen to us and give us some of that? You know, maybe we can rethink the idea of getting rid of the licence fee after all.

Dowden's line of attack is so weak it could be blown over by a light breeze or five minutes on bbc.co.uk.

The amount of times the corporation’s journalists have been dispatched to find elderly Brexiteers living in provincial towns to talk about how cross they are has been enough to drive those of us on the other side of that to debate to drink. Or at least CNN.

Dowden mentioned the latter in citing Ofcom research showing that “the perception of news impartiality is currently lower for some public service broadcasting channels than commercial channels such as Sky and CNN”.

If you wanted to, you could see his statement there as evidence of the BBC living up to its ideals, cheerfully upsetting both sides with the one on the right cleaving to the (until recently) Murdoch-owned Sky and the other finding solace in a US broadcaster that regularly infuriates Donald Trump with its own impartial reporting.

The trouble with Dowden’s nonsense is that it has become so pervasive you wonder if it’s even worth spending the time skewering it.

One of the real problems with the corporation in recent years is that it has tried so hard to be impartial at the expense of everything else that it has sometimes chosen to sacrifice objective truth in the process.

In pursuit of guarding what Dowden described as the BBC’s “unique selling point”, this has seen it giving spurious legitimacy to a host of quacks, conmen and frauds. On occasion, it has pitted climate deniers and anti-vaxxers against scientists and doctors.

Goodness me, it has even given air time to the kooks from the Flat Earth Society.

More seriously, it has been far too slow to call out people spinning lies under the guise of opinion (there is a distinction).

But perhaps that’s changing. If you’re going to go down, you might just as well go down fighting after all.

If you wanted to dip into the font of conspiracy, you could view this speech, and especially its timing, as a shot across the bows of an institution that has displayed some welcome feistiness of late, notably in the reporting of the bullying allegations against Dowden’s cabinet colleague Priti Patel, where it has been one of the leading voices.

Perhaps he’s after a promotion, because it looks like there’s going to be a vacancy a little higher up the greasy pole sooner or later.

What the BBC has done with that story, reporting with admirable fearlessness and helping to hold a minister to account for her alleged actions, is what we really need more of from the corporation, particularly now.

It is such reporting that used to be its unique selling point and if that’s what we get, then some of those who’ve departed for CNN may return. Ditto some of those who’ve departed for Sky.