The Huw Edwards feeding frenzy has been truly awful – but it could yet strengthen the BBC | Gaby Hinsliff

The hypocrisy of its critics is grim to watch. Still, the BBC can retain support by making a virtue of transparency

Once the feeding frenzy is over, this is what we're always left with. Families shattered, lives ruined and a thin, greasy feeling of shame descending over all who got caught up in the heat of the moment.

The worst-kept secret of the week is out, for whatever that is worth. We all know now that the anonymous BBC presenter accused by the Sun of paying for sexually explicit images was Huw Edwards, the corporation's weighty anchor, in every sense of the word: the reassuring face and voice of every great state occasion, from election night to the death of a monarch.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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