To think this isn’t actually the BBC’s fight?

[notonbodycomparisonsites]

Hear me out… I’m not very politically minded. This is my view as a lay person with unlimited access to the news and the internet…

But my personal opinion is that the BBC shouldn’t be held to task like this, not at this time.

They definitely need to assess their policies on who is allowed to say what and when. But the fact is that a public figure disagreed with the government, and the government didn’t want their actions criticised publicly, so they pulled out the ‘we own the BBC card’ and used BBC policy to attempt to shut the matter up. As far as I’m concerned that seems like a misuse of power, and as much as the BBC need to sort themselves out, I’d rather acknowledge that I’m uncomfortable we even got here to begin with!

For what it’s worth, I don’t actually agree with Gary Lineker’s opinion on the immigration matter and the 1930’s Germany blah blah blah… but I’m still glad I live in a society where I got to hear him say it .

So… AIBU for thinking that we should soon be hearing from the government with a little apology for causing such a major fucking mess?

(Please don’t ask me anything about politics)

@Wontbringlulu there isn't a party that is exclusively for the working class. This is a good thing. We need to get rid of the toxic remnants of the class system. Then we need to bring in PR so that we can have some proper left wing parties in parliament (as well as more right wing ones, obvs).

Insisting on dogmatic purity on the left (or centre right, if you're talking about Labour) is the surest way to maintain a century of Tories in power.

Just going back to the licence fee issue.
If the BBC became a subscription service like Netflix or paid for through advertising then I'd presume that the Government would relinquish its power over Board appointments?

Couldn't have put it better.

Also

The BBC acts as if its the Labour Party's media outlet. That is not impartiality.

The BBC acts as if its the Labour Party's media outlet. That is not impartiality.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Which BBC have you been watching lately?

@Notonthestairs I would really bloody hope so.

That's the thing - I don't think the BBC should be any different in that sense. They should be able to appoint the best person for the job. Instead they blow with the political winds, and lately have blown harder than they have in the past.

Both sides probably claim partiality

But would you prefer the BBC stays as is or goes?

I can’t abide Lineker but that’s here nor there, I can see that if you take out the BBC from media entirely you’ll be left with a much more right skewed landscape.

I’m not convinced it could survive as subscription, in same format as now anyway. And would the level of arts, science, nature etc we have now be protected enough without the license version of BBC?

But we aren't talking about 'comfortably off' are we?

We are talking about someone who is a millionaire and who was charged with tax avoidance - so he doesn't follow the Labour concept of the wealthy paying more tax. Or at least it appears he doesn't think he should pay it.

Like I said, he just pays lip-service to Labour.

@pointythings thank you, sincerely. I’ve noted those. I’m hoping our trip will happen later this year, it will be great to have things like this to look forward to. And thanks for being open to discuss opinions like that, I actually really enjoy debating opposing opinions especially when you can find a comfortable middle ground at the end of it.

I try to watch as little of their news urrent affairs since they had a half hour demonstrating to z couple who were floating viters om why Keir Starmer is a jolly good chap. No bloody policies, mind and no other leaders were jolly good chaps. Plus I have a chum who works there and says that it's off the wall propaganda there.

That's why.

@MarshaBradyo funny yesterday I was adamant that I wanted it to stay, I saw it as a staple of my culture and a reassuring figure amongst the rest of the media in the UK. But that’s not actually the case, I realised that over time. I actually do think now that I would rather the BBC pissed off. Or rather what the BBC are purporting to be. The concept of the BBC doesn’t exist in reality, they have their fingers in so many metaphorical pies: the no advertising rule was exactly to avoid partiality by having corporations pay them to advertise. But they’re getting money from corporations anyway and have been doing so for so long that now, they’re doing it blatantly and thinking nobody will notice! Unless they can prove me wrong in the above, I would actually prefer they crawled under a rock. Do you feel they genuinely do offset the opinions from right skewed media? How much of a dent does our license fee money make to them, in comparison to the millions they would get from a single Netflix production say for example?

@Wontbringlulu his tweet about refugees and the immigration bill wasn't paying lip service to Labour, it was highlighting human rights. If you don't get that, there's no hope. Yes, he should pay his taxes. That doesn't mean he has no right to an opinion. There are lots of people who should pay more tax than they do who are nevertheless allowed an opinion - many of them are running our country. Free speech isn't just for people who are 100% virtuous.

@MarshaBradyo in terms of arts and science programming I prefer Channel 4. If the BBC died a death, they would probably pick up a lot of that work. The funding landscape would change, but perhaps it needs to. The BBC as it is right now is not fit for purpose. And yes, if it had acted as it did over GL but with a Labour government being criticised, I would say exactly the same thing.

Plus I have a chum who works there and says that it's off the wall propaganda there.

And of course it's all halos and holiness at Conservative HQ... Why is the left always held to a higher standard?

The BBC acts as if its the Labour Party's media outlet. That is not impartiality.

What are you on about - the Chairman is a Conservative Party donor and the DG was deputy chair of his local association and stood for election as a Conservative councillor twice. The board member for England is an ex head of comms for Theresa May. The head of news is married to a director of comms at the Cabinet Office. The BBC is anything but the Labour Party's media outlet.

If the BBC was the Labour party’s media outlet, this thread wouldn’t exist.

But they’re getting money from corporations anyway and have been doing so for so long that now, they’re doing it blatantly and thinking nobody will notice!

What do you mean by this, which corporations?

Especially when his tax affairs aren't exactly 100% above board.

If people want to preach it, they should be willing to pay for it.

@SoTedious think about the Dave channel, for example, run by a subsidiary of the BBC for a very, very long time, running adverts like they’re channel 4. The money goes back to them, but it’s diverted. Therefore falling within guidelines. It wasn’t as blatant because it wasn’t plastered everywhere, but they haven’t been as silent with Netflix and that annoyed me. It’s so obvious that the license fee is a drop in the ocean to their revenue. Their attitude to staff silence at particular times is a clear indication that their motives are pointed in one direction: money. Not impartiality, at all.

I think some might survive. So are you imagining BBC productions sold to Netflix, eg you can watch some programmes on there from them and maybe iPlayer and that’s it?

It would take away a lot of the more mediocre content that couldn’t survive. I’m not against that. I get more concerned about the quality programmes on R4 and the bands that are grown by R6 music and often ending up at Glastonbury than further.

I mostly use BBC for radio. Then there’s news online and whether enough funding could run those sites and without which you’d not have as much balance to the DM and other.

As for staff I can believe many are quite left, it’s the media / BBC and not unusual but some appointments at top go the other way.

The things that worry me most about it going are radio and online news as much as it irritates at times. Good quality programming might survive anyway.

The things that worry me most about it going are radio and online news as much as it irritates at times.

I agree that this is a concern.

@MarshaBradyo I agree wholeheartedly, radio in particular would sadden me if it changed drastically as so far it’s relatively
untouched by all of this stuff (despite the income/funding I guess…), and I always use BBC news to contrast other news sources, particularly international ones, and it’s my go to for radio news because it’s presented clearly. There is a hell of a lot I would miss. But I’m starting to think it’s actually disappearing anyway, I don’t think this will be a cause I think it’s a symptom.

@MarshaBradyo also sorry just to address something else you mentioned, I actually only learned the depth of the ties between Netflix and BBC when I learned that there are some BBC shows that you can only watch on Netflix… 🙁

"It’s so obvious that the license fee is a drop in the ocean to their revenue."

In 2020, the BBC’s income was £4.943bn, of which £3.5bn came from the licence fee. More than £1.3bn came from BBC Studios, a commercial operation that generates money by selling BBC content to international distributors”.

Good article here -
www.theweek.co.uk/news/uk-news/955517/licence-fee-threat-how-else-could-the-bbc-be-funded

@Notonthestairs apologies as I’m not in a position to read and digest an article at the moment, but does that all include revenue from UKTV? And any Netflix productions featuring BBC, as opposed to BBC featuring Netflix? I’m curious to know how well they could potentially hide these revenue streams. And it’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that they would do such a thing. I mean look at them right now 😂

I would pay my license fee purely to upkeep the radio and news from the BBC, but I’m getting to a point where I would dispute paying it for much longer knowing that they don’t value impartiality, which is one of their main tenets and one main reason behind the license fee in the first place.

The article doesnt go in to more detail so I'd assume that would be wrapped up in to the £1.3 bn from BBC studios.