Fingers in pies
The BBC was long ago politicised with top jobs going to mates of Blair and Brown and supporters of the New Labour creed. By happy coincidence they were often also people who had put their hands in their pockets when the New Labour collection plate came around.
The fact BBC1 controller Jay Hunt also works for a firm which has some healthy contracts from the same BBC that employs her should surprise no one. Nor should the fact that Britian's largest broadcaster should send presenters to an outside firm for media training, after all it is not as if the BBC would know anything about television.
Hunt is not the first BBC executive to be found with links to firms with contracts with their employer nor will she be the last in a corporation which has become just as tainted as everything else New Labour has touched.
The concept of public service seems to be something the BBC and its executives have lost. They want the trappings of a private firm with bonuses, lavish expenses and high salaries except they are immune from mistakes because anything they do is backed by a guaranteed income from the licence fee. So let's give them what they want. We have flogged off everything else soe why not sell the BBC to the highest bidder and then we can save ourselves a TV licence fee.
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Roger Clarke - Birmingham’s very own Grumpy Old Man on what gets right up his nose.
The BBC again??? Yawn!
I am impressed. A comment in an hour. Either you are an avid reader of my blog in which case I am sorry to bore you my friend . . . or you really should get out more and I don't care if you are bored or not.
I expect the "get a life" comments from teenagers on forums, not from a man of your age. Poor, poor.
The point is Roger, you do have a point about this story, but so often I see these little digs at the BBC, and most of them really are Daily Mail esq digs.
Next time I will remember, even though being a regular reader of your blog, not to comment so fast when I happen to read the site and see you have made a new post, not to comment so quickly, lest I be accused of having 'no life'.
My age!!!! I am a mere stripling just coming into my prime - at least I hope so because if my prime is behind me I want my money back.
My disillusionment with the BBC is much more deep rooted than the Daily Mail's BBC crisis hits house prices school of journalism. The decline of the Beeb under the influence of New Labour is tragic.
It is an organisation which is happily selling off production and technical facilities at knock down prices then buying in the services it has just sold - which must sound familiar to any student of Government policy.
It is happily cutting back on news and journalists and going down the dangerous line of soliciting mobile phone images and DIY reporting from Joe Public. Where once it had its own staff all too often now it is relying on unchecked agency reports. Add to that the fact it wants to develop web content which it accepts threatens local newspapers – despite local newspapers being the very source of much of the local news it is using - and you can see there is no one at the BBC who cares about the communities it is supposed to serve or who can join up the dots of how things work..
If you look at the gobbledegook executives send around to staff and the bizarre in- house courses it runs you might think we have been invaded by aliens. It has posts that would make any PC obsessed council proud and a top heavy structure which pays ridiculous amounts for executives in public service broadcasting..
When we get down to individual issues then, for example, carbon dioxide causing global warming is not a theory on the BBC it is a cast iron, no argument allowed, fact where dissenters are either ignored or ridiculed. One of the reasons, among many, Peter Sissons gave for his departure. Balance on that and a whole range of other issues has gone out of the window.
The BBC is now too close to Government and to close to being the state broadcaster and when it is not pushing the Government line – or moving to Salford (an area with plenty of Labour seats that need propping up) - it sees itself almost as a commercial station chasing ratings – hence the glut of reality and celebrity shows – reality in this context being one of the great misnomers of our age.
So either the BBC is turned once again into an independent broadcaster, no easy task so ingrained are the New Labour PC media disciples, making quality programmes without aping the likes of X-factor in pursuit of ratings or it, and its executives, are cut loose and left to the mercy of a commercial world they already enjoy in terms of perks and salaries but currently without any of the responsibilities.
Now that beats get a life, doesn't it?
Well that's a lot better.
However I am well aware of what goes on at the BBC as my partner works there and himself tells me about what goes on and how a great institution is being damaged by MT.
However what also hurts the BBC is the way people, though understandably in some cases, but with only a small amount of the facts to what goes on, ridicule the BBC in the media.
That hurts the good decent hard working people there who are still doing their best against the bureaucracy, to ensure that the core values of the BBC are kept. And this in the face of the new tri-media working, the way television values are trying to be imposed on written journalism - where the two do not and are not legally compatible.
See Roger I am very aware of what goes on there, my point was, it seems sometimes that people are too gleefully happy to pick up on yet another BBC story without wondering how all this - as much as the decisions of the execs, is damaging to those trying to do their job.
I do not agree with the BBC being New Labour's lap dog - I think you'll find that goes for ITV. What I will say though is since the whitewash of the David Kelly affair, and the way the new execs apologised unreservedly without seeing the report, the BBC has less of a backbone, and are acting frightened, and that doesn't help either when you have the constant barraging in the press on the state of the BBC which in the end of the day still overlooks and does damage to those, as I have already said, are doing their jobs, are working hard, and are still trying to keep the core values in hand.
I still thought though the get a life was out of hand - I'm up for healthy debate, just not being insulted. But I'm glad to read fuller your views.
I also wanted to pick up on this point from you:
"Where once it had its own staff all too often now it is relying on unchecked agency reports. Add to that the fact it wants to develop web content which it accepts threatens local newspapers – despite local newspapers being the very source of much of the local news it is using - and you can see there is no one at the BBC who cares about the communities it is supposed to serve or who can join up the dots of how things work.."
I think you'll find that this is not just a fault with the BBC but many agencies including local news that now rely on copy and pasters. However, that would be very unfair of me to say is all and neither is it fair for you to say that no one at the BBC cares - you'll find, if you spend the time speaking to people on the subby's desk, that they do care.
And local news needs to look at how it runs its own ship before blaming it all on the BBC - I'm not saying that the Beeb may not have some hand, but isn't it up to local media to provide their own service regardless - and give a service which is on par, instead of bemoaning the bad old BBC?
The BBC HAS to have some local news, because this is part of it's remit and agreement when negotiating for the licence fee. It can not simply be Londoncentric and has long offered a small local news section on it's England pages. I also think what they offer there is fractional to the wealth of fuller stories local news can and does offer - and so do not see it as direct opposition.
And take into account, the offer for the video recently given is purely voluntary - it may not be a great idea, but at the same time those that decline it, only have to offer the same or more to counter the effect.
I was very careful not to blame foot soldiers. Principles don't pay bills so the journos and subs are left having union meetings and passing resolutions expressing dismay and concerns while the steamroller rumbles on flattening opposition.
I also agree that local newspapers have some responsibility for their own decline with managements all too often being less concerned with how good a newspaper can be produced than how cheaply it can be done. It is the usual curse of the accountant and the Beeb has the added burden of political cronyism and, with the lure of the power of broadcasting, more agendas at the top than a planning committee storeroom.
I know Beeb staff below blue sky thinking level care but I question the committment of those at the top making the decisions to anything but themselves and their personal or political ambitions.
I know some people really criticise the BBC a lot but I actually like them. I think their quality of output is much better than the commercial channels and I like the fat there's no advertising. I would be quite happy to continue to pay my licence fee as long as we are told exactly how much is being payed to all the top dogs who seem to be taking advantage of us. It they sorted this out I would be more than happy to continue to pay my licence fee.
It its best the BBC is one of the best broadcasters in the world with a fine record for documentaries, drama, entertainment, innovative comedy along with a tradition of impartial balanced news reporting and investigative current affairs - all attributes which are being eroded, dumbed down or just ignored by the present management.
It has a guaranteed income of £3.65 billion plus from licence fees alone and I do not believe that we are getting good value for our money nor do I belive that the BBC is getting good value from those charged with maintaining its traditions as an institution.
Those in charge should be guardians but sadly they seem to see themselves more in the role of robber barons.
Put people in charge who actually understand the concept of public service and public service broadcasting and the role of the BBC not only in Briatin but in the world - remember the BBC World Service was the only impartial news service available to many parts of the world - and we would all be happy to pay the licence fee.