tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post1548152822586326636..comments2024-01-01T17:21:52.555+00:00Comments on Is the BBC biased?: The BBC Scrutiny CommitteeCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08741318067991857821noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post-76672918287339854852015-03-26T17:52:05.848+00:002015-03-26T17:52:05.848+00:00I envy you your (semi) optimism. However, I think...I envy you your (semi) optimism. However, I think it's misplaced. Talk to my (LibDem) MP and all you get is a "speak your weight" encomium to the BBC plus, for good measure, that envy of the world - the NHS. But, of course, the BBC is an echo chamber for LibDem pieties (and Labour ones of course) although in the BBC Narrative the LibDems betrayed the nation in 2010 by going into coalition with the devils incarnate.<br />I fear that the BBC is now too powerful and influential for a lone MP or group of MPs to combat: it needs a party to take it on as a matter of policy. The obvious one is the Conservatives but seeing what's happened - or not happened - since 2010 it seems they have little stomach for having a serious go at the BBC even if they wanted to. Sure, there's some nibbling round the edges and the select committee's report is a sign that not everybody in Westminster has rolled over but danger for the BBC? I don't think so.Umbongonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post-10685360927485625152015-03-26T13:31:41.931+00:002015-03-26T13:31:41.931+00:00Sadly I think you may have the right of it.
Howev...Sadly I think you may have the right of it.<br /><br />However, there is hope that some in Parliament are not just there for the cheques and chicks, and have actual notions of representing their constituents and making this a better country for future generations.<br /><br />Reading today's Guido coverage does not do much to reassure that the nest of vipers represented by The Speaker's Office is not simply complementing the sack of rats that is the BBC in this, but there you go.<br /><br />However, just as East Side gangs have their messy turf wars over 'respect', it is possible the BBC has overstepped a variety of lines a few times too often in basically telling elected Parliament that unelected BBC is in charge, in power, in perpetuity, and they better not forget it if they know what's good for them.<br /><br />Tory or Labour, UKIP or Green, if there is a glimmer of belief in democratic process at the ballot, such an attitude should be a rag redder to genuine public servants than the BBC's new corporate ID makeover.Emmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11550976834509947355noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post-81610051284587294602015-03-26T12:17:25.585+00:002015-03-26T12:17:25.585+00:00"Lord Hall doesn't seem to have gone down..."Lord Hall doesn't seem to have gone down too well with them, does he?"<br /><br />And, by the looks of it, he couldn't give a toss. After all the committee - and its members - now "disappear" until after the election and who knows who will be the members of the new committee. Why should he care? Such criticism is water off a duck's back. The BBC is beyond this kind of thing. Had the committee reported a year/2 years ago maybe Hall would have responded with some meaningless bromide about "learning lessons" or just plain lied (eg when he said yesterday that he was a "huge fan" of <i>Top Gear</i>). The <i>only</i> weapon the politicians have is the ancient weapon of "supply". Stop the funding and suddenly the BBC will start listening to criticism: keep a telly tax and the BBC will continue the two-fingered salute to its non- Islington audience. Is that so difficult for a politician to understand?Umbongonoreply@blogger.com