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http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> News and Comment >> Bell on BBC woes http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1384125521 Message started by Administrator on Nov 10^th, 2013, 11:19pm

Title: Bell on BBC woes
Post by Administrator on Nov 10^th, 2013, 11:19pm

This is taken from the Daily Telegraph

A sense of entitlement has damaged the BBC
To restore lost trust, the BBC needs a dose of austerity, argues Martin Bell

So the BBC is under the storm clouds again. Its critics accuse it of political bias. Its rivals object to its elephantiasis. The Conservative Party Chairman threatens it with further budget cuts and a redistribution of the licence fee.
Not much new there. The Corporation has always seemed to me to enjoy fair weather as the national broadcaster only in times of unity and celebration – a Royal Wedding, a Jubilee or an Olympics. Even then, it made a memorable mess of the Jubilee Regatta.
But I sense a special unease today, both inside and outside the Corporation, about its position as the country’s leading communicator, entertainer and broadcast news provider. I believe this unease is justified. It doesn’t derive, as sometimes in the past, from an editorial error or an offensive programme. Indeed, some of today’s programmes may actually not be offensive enough. After its bruising encounter with the Labour Government over Iraq, and specifically the Gilligan affair, the BBC withdrew into its shell and played safe. It lost Greg Dyke, its best Director General since Hugh Greene. A culture of timidity developed, most conspicuously in Newsnight’s disgraceful decision to spike its expose of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
No one did this to the BBC. The BBC did this to itself.

To read the rest of the article, click here.