The BBC is finally being punished!

[longfingernails]

Apparently there is a great plan to shift the cost of free TV licenses from the taxpayer to the BBC - with no increase in the license fee to compensate!

That amounts to about a 20% cut in the BBC budget. I am over the moon at this news.

It's incredibly progressive too! It shifts the burden from poor taxpayers to overpaid BBC staff, who will probably have to take a 25% pay cut! I am sure the newsreader who revealed she was paid £92k will be distraught. I can't even begin to imagine how much luvvies like Robert Peston and Andrew Marr are paid.

Maybe the next time the BBC says that "public spending cuts take money out of the economy" on the news, it might like to reflect on why Tories are so cock-a-hoop tonight.

They are in the middle of a "Cuts watch" series of programmes, I understand. Funnily enough, they never seemed to get round to a "Deficit watch" or "Tax watch" series during the Labour years. Strange, really - I wonder why?

God, no. Without the BBC we would sink to the level of Fox News One of the reasons Americans have a reputation of being so terribly ignorant of world affairs and how they are percieved by the world in general is the lack of an unbiased media. I remember being in the USA when Kim Il Sung died. Was this on the news? The death of the dictator of the last "Communist Empire"?? Whas it b**locks, it was a small paragraph on page 10 of the Washington post. Simply stated, most Americans have little or no understanding of the world at large. Their media is owned by powerful magnates with vested interests. Balance in media reporting is not something I experienced whenever I've been in the USA. I shudder to think that Murdoch and his cronies would not be challenged in the general media. It's bad enough that he dictates so much public opinion from the pages of the Daily Fail and the like.

I credit the BBC with allowing my child to grow up watching quality programming without the vile and insidious influence of advertising aimed at very, very impressionable minds.

The BBC is absolutely fine as it is. If it is leaning slightly to the left then there are enough channels (the vast majority of the others) leaning to the right. And it should be allowed to stay well rounded with some "appealing to all" programmes.

I love the total absence of adverts but I assume this is the "unfair" bit as the BBC is funded by the public whereas the other channels are not. As far as I'm concerned the quality of the programmes makes up for it but that's my personal opinion.

Spidookly, I think you have some points, but the BBC is a national, not state broadcaster. I totally agree it should be held under close scrutiny, but I think we need it there - it safeguards against ownership of key media by a major politician, which is a problem in numerous countries. There have also been occasions, for example during the 7th July bombings, when I was mighty glad to have access to news coverage uninteruppted by adverts.

Although it may be of minority interest, it is also fantastic that we have a broadcaster that produces a lot of high quality cultural and educational programming, and which works with the Open University. Yes, there is Sky Arts, but they don't produce much original content. I don't think we should be shy about subsidising this sort of programme through the licence fee, nor should we assume that people on low incomes have no interest in it.

But if we are talking about bias, maybe we should heed the words of the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, who said that the BBC was quilty of "massive" left-wing bias in the past, and remember the BBC's controller of drama commissioning, who said that the BBC should foster "left-of-centre thinking", but after pressure to apologise from Jeremy Hunt, he clarified that he meant "left field" creative thinking.
I think we can all agree that they do a lot of that.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308215/Yes-BBC-biased-Mark-Thompson-admits-massive-lean-Left.html

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/7976318/BBC-was-biased-against-Thatcher-admits-Mark-Thompson.html

You'll miss it when it's gone.

And I feel it is unimaginative to base your hatred of the organisation on the fact that the people you see on screen are highly paid.

Budget cuts will result in job losses, not for them, but for the averagely paid BBC staff who actually make the programmes, on TV and on radio, (which is much cheaper but never seems to get mentioned in these arguments.)

"Although it may be of minority interest, it is also fantastic that we have a broadcaster that produces a lot of high quality cultural and educational programming, and which works with the Open University. Yes, there is Sky Arts, but they don't produce much original content. I don't think we should be shy about subsidising this sort of programme through the licence fee, nor should we assume that people on low incomes have no interest in it."

Agree entirely, we need it to stop dumbing down and start smartening up. We need it to produce more high quality cultural and educational material, like the days of Clarke's Civilisation series and the old AJP Taylor history lectures. Stuff that was high-brow and world beating, stuff that was the envy of the world.

I think the best sign of the impartiality of the BBC is that is is accused of bias by both the left and the right.

Claig, you've just quoted the Torygraph and the Dcaily Fail. Both papers with a right wing agenda

I just don't get why we NEED it at all. High brow programmes can be produced in the private sector. And, at least with channels like "Fox" news, you know the bias and it is unashamed. The left wing anti Israel bias of the BBC is always denied, although most posters here recognise it is there.

If the BBC did not exist, I very much doubt all those above who defend it would like the suggestion of a flat rate poll tax to produce a television channel controlled by a board put in place by the government. I suspect it would be called a regressive tax on the poor to fund the pleasures of the time rich.

I can tell you from experience that for the hours, the time away, the 'perks' (I use that term very losely^) the programme makers earn their wages.

I would happily pay for the BBC what I pay subscription wise for the shit on Sky per month.

The over-paid managers are not the people who are passionate about their work, they are accountants raking in the big bucks. But they won't be the ones to suffer. The majority of staff, some earning below the London average, haven't had a payrise or any form of bonus for a few years now. Their pensions have already been targetted.

This is just a nasty thread started by an ignorant OP who can't see what such cuts really mean. If this was your life you wouldn't have started it.

But Mark Thompson said they were "guilty" of "massive" left-wing bias. I don't remember any of them saying that they were guilty of massive right-wing bias or bias in support of Margaret Hilda Roberts.

For StewieGriffithsMum

Claig - so you read your own links?

"BBC Director General Mark Thompson has admitted the corporation was guilty of a 'massive' Left-wing bias in the past.
The TV chief also admitted there had been a 'struggle' to achieve impartiality and that staff were ' mystified' by the early years of Margaret Thatcher's government.
But he claimed there was now 'much less overt tribalism' among the current crop of young journalists, and said in recent times the corporation was a 'broader church'."

Don't fight the last war.

'Claig, you've just quoted the Torygraph and the Dcaily Fail. Both papers with a right wing agenda'

no, I've reported the words of Mark Thompson, the Director General of the BBC. There were words like massive, bias, left-wing and guilty. The Daily Mail may have thought these things, but Mark Thompson said them. Surely the Guardian must have also reported it? I don't read it, so I don't know.

But one of the tasks of the BBC is to provide balance. When Labour were in power we were treated to the spectacle of Nick Griffin being given a national platform to air his views. When the Tories were in power we got "Did you threated to overrule him?"

liberalconspiracy.org/2010/05/14/backlash-against-nick-robinson-for-pro-tory-bias/

TheCoalitionNeedsYou, I don't believe everything I read in the papers. Some of it is spin - the progressive spin doctors taught me that bitter lesson.

'haven't had a payrise or any form of bonus for a few years now. Their pensions have already been targetted.' What's a bonus then? Many in the public sector don't get bonuses ever. The payrises haven't been huge for some of the public sector either, and yes, this is our lives. Lots of families are waiting with baited breath for the SDSR today and will find out if their partners/spouses still have careers or not, and if there will be a redundancy package, as HM Forces aren't entitled to redundancy.

As others are always saying, if you don't lie the pay and conditions, then find another job. That applies to those at the BBC as well.

www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-yes-the-bbc-is-biased--but-to-the-right-443954.html

www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/08/mehdi-hasan-bbc-wing-bias-corporation

claig - That may be. But the article you link too says the exact opposite of the point you were making. Mark Thompson, the Director General of the BBC, is saying the BBC is not biased any more.

TheCoalitionNeedsYou, that quote is from a blog called Liberal Conspiracy. Is it part of a liberal conspiracy? I don't know, I don't know why it is called Liberal Conspiracy. I tend to believe the Director General of the BBC more than a facebook campaign and a blog called Liberal Conspiracy

Hmm... I can't help thinking that what will happen is not 'overpaid' BBC staff taking a pay cut, but more populist reality TV bollocks being made.

I love the BBC. And what is wrong with a left wing bias? If it's so extreme we all know it's there and can make allowances for it. Better that than a cheerleader for the government.

Claig - The point is that there are accusations of bias from both the left and the right about the BBC's political position.

'Mark Thompson, the Director General of the BBC, is saying the BBC is not biased any more.'

Yes and I have some real estate on the moon I can sell you.