John Simpson: BBC licence fee freeze is like waterboarding

[longfingernails]

John Simpson says that freezing the licence fee is comparable to torture.

www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/nov/03/john-simpson-bbc-licence-fee-deal

This, of course, after Polly Toynbee in the Guardian, wrote that capping housing benefit to £400 a week would be a "final solution".

Good to see that the left-wing media has a sense of perspective .

I can't wait to hear what atrocity the abolition of the Union Modernisation Fund will be compared to!

You're not above a little journalistic hyperbole yourself lfn... pots & kettles and all that, eh?

I'm not a journalist - especially the World Affairs Editor of the BBC!

Simpson is a good journalist & reports world affairs in a particularly engaging way - often because he doesn't stay totally detached & impartial. If he has a strong personal opinon on the licence fee decision I don't see anything wrong with him expressing it. If he feels that he has to use an emotive analogy to make a point, what's wrong with that?

Waterboarding??

Freedom of speech?.... John Simpson, of anyone, knows exactly what torture looks like. He's been in more war zones than you and me have had breakfasts. Using that phrase in the article is making a deliberately provocative comparison to emphasise his point.

I think Simpson is downplaying real torture by likening a freeze in the licence fee to torture. Is he an Islingtonista?

Waterboarding? That's a ridiculous statement!
Do agree with Chili he can say what he likes although unlike us, his opinion does carry weight.
Chris Evans this morning on radio 2/4 said he thought that organ donation should be compulsory, I don't think he should have said it because he's a broadcaster and is 'meant' to remain impartial, but on the other hand how far do you go down a road of curtailing speech?

We don't curtail speech at all. We may not like what someone says but we defend to the death their right to say it... to paraphrase. That's the beauty of our free society. Broadcasters have an obligation to be responsible in what they say - not impartial - except when reporting the news. Evans suggesting compulsory organ donation is not an irresponsible statement. Neither is Simpson using water torture to highlight his anger with the way BBC budget cuts are being implemented. If a national radio station broadcast an incorrect piece of information that resulted in mass panic - that would be irresponsible.