BBC coverage to be given the "Olympics treatment"

[eFestivals]

Auntie has a dozen channels to fill 365 days a year

you can't resist the disingenuous statements, can you? It has three channels of its own output 24/7 (1, 2 & News) plus 2 part-time channels of 3 & 4 (at a stretch you could include the 1 channel of Red button as that's available 24/7, too) in the adult sphere. These are the licence funded channels.

The BBC has an avowedly liberal, multi-cultural, pro-European agenda. To you these things may not even seem worth complaining about and I would probably agree, but there are plenty of licence payers who feel very differently. Liberal bias is still bias.

It merely has the appearance of liberal bias because just every other mainstream media is avowedly - rabidly, even - right-wing.

Giving both perspectives is called balance. The 'non-liberal' angle the rabid want is another raving right propaganda outlet.

No, what I said was I would happily pay for social policies and institutions that I felt were of broad benefit even if that benefit did not directly accrue to me.

identifying what is of broad benefit requires an adherence to the facts and not the fantasies you've given (that one about the BBC crushing commercial competition was particularly priceless), as well as accepting the views of other people as being worth something - and there is no doubt that the BBC is highly valued for what it does right now. Yes there's people who can criticise it and say this & that can be done better (and there's always room for improvement), but in the main those people are still very supportive of it.

So if nothing else your view is out of step with the mainstream.

the monopoly Auntie has on funding for Public Service Broadcasting effectively stifles that debate

and yet to break up that funding will without-doubt create worse value for money public broadcasting as well as ensuring that the BBC is never in the position to do anything you personally might like ever again.

As I said a few posts back: you are James Murdoch and I claim my five pounds.

Perhaps a commissioning model, would be better, with producers pitching for state funds.

which is, funnily enough, exactly what happens now at the BBC. It's been an era of falling standards and worse value for money.

But hey, don't let the facts stop you from creating the perfect BBC with no money, of programmes that no one wants to watch (else the commercial sphere would be cashing in on them already), and where the right wing nutters run riot. I'm sure it would be lovely.

Perhaps a commissioning I've failed to see you offer any criticism, you seem pretty happy with it as it is.

In the main, I am. It can't give me personally 24/7 entertainment but it would be unreasonable for me to expect that. No other broadcaster does the full range of subjects in as good a way, not even close. Edited February 4, 2013 by eFestivals

[James Bolivar]

I'd very much argue the BBC has a liberal bias when they've consistently glossed over the destruction of the NHS, and have a guess which political figure has appeared most on Question Time ever? You've guessed it, the unelected kitchen table fascist rolled in wotsits.

[eFestivals]

I said left to uncritical supporters the BBC would destroy the commercial sector.

50 years and counting proves that it doesn't.

There is evidence that the BBC news website has throttled the development of commercial web news in the UK

really? What evidence? The fact of Sky being shit is not your evidence.

and, unlike the US, there seems to be no market for local commercial TV.

that's something that the commericial channels petitioned the govt to reduce, and they did - which shows that's no interest in local commercial TV.

For the likes of you looking towards the American dream (snigger snigger, you've not seen it have you?) of TV, the reason why is that the idea simple cannot translate in the same way, due to different geographies and different social phenomena - and nothing to do with the BBC.

This support leads to protectionism, as is evidenced by the stunning lack of national, commercial, broadcasters. To protect the BBC the government strictly controls the national licence franchise - in a capitalist democracy that would be seen as unfair.

three other national commercial broadcasters - the same as the USA if I'm not mistaken (but without there also being the BBC)?

So it's hardly the stunning lack you believe.

There's no country in the 'free world' which doesn't control the licence franchise in some manner - and most normally for right wing parania reasons and naff all to do with sniffling anything commercially. And that's very definitely how it's gone in the UK.

Be careful what you wish for .... with all this freedom from facts and govt interference we might have commie TV operating and that would never do. Right wing nutters everywhere might get murdered in their beds.

[James Bolivar]

Right wing nutters everywhere might get murdered in their beds.

[eFestivals]

I argue for reform of an organ of state - one that was established back in the days of Empire and you see me as "right wing"; I'll take the "nutter" on the chin.

whether you know it or not, you're arguing a 100% tory line, and a line they've devised only for the purposes of fatally undermining the BBC so that its public support falls away so that it can be abolished.

(they're applying the same tricks to the education and health systems too).

I dunno if you've seen yank TV - from all you say I very VERY strongly suspect you can't have - but I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Edited February 4, 2013 by eFestivals

[whisty]

I can't watch commercial TV it's just so annoying. Maybe I will tape something and whizz through the ads but that's about it.

USA TV in the main is like bubble gum, you can chew for hours with absolutely no benefit to your well being whatsover.

BBC as an alternative is like eating health food.

[James Bolivar]

whether you know it or not, you're arguing a 100% tory line, and a line they've devised only for the purposes of fatally undermining the BBC so that its public support falls away so that it can be abolished.

(they're applying the same tricks to the education and health systems too).

I dunno if you've seen yank TV - from all you say I very VERY strongly suspect you can't have - but I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

[thesecretingredientiscrime]

An acknowledgment by the right sided press?

[James Bolivar]

An acknowledgment by the right sided press?

[Guest]

The BBC has an acknowledged Left-Liberal bias which flies in the face of the impartiality they are meant to espouse, but to criticise this I MUST be a Tory. Personally, I have no love for C\conservatives of any stripe, but that is not the point - the BBC is funded on the basis of its being non-partisan. Would you be so happy to pay your licence fee if it adopted a more right-of-centre bias? Of course not. Would you be happy if the Telegraph were the most read (or at least bought) newspaper at BBC offices and not the Guardian? I suspect that you are happy with the BBC's bias because it mirrors your own.

As for American TV - the programmes are generally better, but the broadcasters much worse. This is a problem with deregulation - we saw it happen overnight in Italy in 80s. American cable networks though are fabulous.

Edited February 4, 2013 by tonyblair

[thesecretingredientiscrime]

I'm not sure that because someone works on the bbc, it gives their point of view any more credence than anyone else.

Surely by having someone like that, it proves their isn't any bias? Along with Hitchens, Portillo, Dorries, Farage etc. who appear on the BBC more than anyone else.

[James Bolivar]

left or right bias is very subjective. France is a communist state to a lot of americans, as are many vaguely liberal european countries. Depending on where you stand, the idea that the BBC is left wing is quite funny. Did you see their coverage of the riots?.. to me it was attrociously one sided.. and not at all left leaning

[Guest]

I've been wondering this for a while.... What's a hipster?

Edited February 4, 2013 by tonyblair

[BigMarv]

I remember when the Beeb got slated for the junket nature of Glasto's of old. 'Olympic coverage', that just sounds like a good old weekend out for Aunty!

[LondonTom]

James Bolivar do you work for the daily mail by any chance?

[neilloggie]

The BBC has made some of the greatest comedies in the history of TV,sadly not too many nowadays,bring back the good old days of Fawlty Towers,Only Fools and Horses,Blackadder,Open all Hours,Citizen Smith,Are You Being Served,Ab-Fab,Swiss Toni,How Not to Live Your Life and Alan Partridge to name but a few. Along with some of the greatest wildlife and nature programmes.

BBC 4 has some brilliant vintage music shows on.

And Top Gear love it or hate it is the biggest selling programme that they produce.

[iwalker]

For better or worse it is a national event now. I watched the England v Scotland Rugby match on Saturday on TV as I am a bit of a fan but wouldn't try and get a ticket so it is a good way for the casual follower to have a look.

[MEGABOWL]

When was this bias 'acknowledged'? Its the subject of ongoing debate

[James Bolivar]

I've been wondering this for a while.... What's a hipster?

Edited February 5, 2013 by James Bolivar

[James Bolivar]

When was this bias 'acknowledged'? Its the subject of ongoing debate

[eFestivals]

The BBC has an acknowledged Left-Liberal bias

then you have no idea what the 'left' actually is.

You recognise the BBC as of the left only because you're so far to the right yourself.

And whether you can recognise it or not, your posts in this thread and elsewhere have certainly shown your views to be strongly of the right.

As for American TV - the programmes are generally better

PMSL. You haven't seen it. You can't have. Edited February 5, 2013 by eFestivals

[russycarps]

Well, the term has a provenance dating back to the ancient days of beat culture - before decent telly and the Internet, but currently it's mostly used to describe a sub-cultural group of affluent, largely white, mostly male, 20-something urbanites. Badges of group membership include - Edwardian-style facial hair, skinny jeans, American Apparel brand attire, a love of retro-mechanical devices, such as fixed-wheel bicycles with leather saddles, and a fondness for the music of Animal Collective and their ilk. Pitchform is the music website of choice. Try HoiPolloi in Manchester for the rest of the aesthetic (I stumbled across this a couple of months ago - nice bags and I was the ONLY man in there without a beard, a well-groomed, centre-parted beard) and Apple products will never be very far away.

[Filthy]

I've been wondering this for a while.... What's a hipster?

[strummer77]

The BBC has an acknowledged Left-Liberal bias which flies in the face of the impartiality they are meant to espouse, but to criticise this I MUST be a Tory.

[eFestivals]

I keep posting to JB "you are James Murdoch and I claim my five pounds" for very good reasons.

Because what JB is saying is an even more right wing version of James Murdoch's regular "how to run the BBC properly" speeches - which are nothing to do with how to run the BBC in any form at all, and everything about undermining the rational for the BBC until such time as it can be destroyed completely.

The saddest thing of all is not that Murdoch stooges everywhere have taken up that cry (either thru gross stupidity or because they want the same destruction), but that even some who have been running the BBC have thought some of those ideas to be good. It takes no genius at all to think thru how going down that path will end.