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Former journalist Robin Aitken, author of highly acclaimed book "Can We Still Trust the BBC?", writes about why the BBC doesn't deserve any increase in the TV licence fee.
An excerpt to wet your whistles:
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There was doubtless a sense of relief in the executive suites on the upper floors of New Broadcasting House this week as BBC bosses digested the contents of the latest Parliamentary inquiry into its operations. The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee (CMS) had undertaken a prolonged investigation and at the end of that process what emerged was …. something not very radical. On the licence fee – that goose which lays an annual egg stuffed with £4 billion for the Beeb to gorge on - the committee pronounced that there is "no better alternative for funding the BBC in the near term". What a relief. Trebles all round!
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Read Robin's full piece in the Telegraph.
Edit: This is the second incarnation of this post today. The first one was culled when an error was spotted by one of our eagle-eyed readers!
Edit: This is the second incarnation of this post today. The first one was culled when an error was spotted by one of our eagle-eyed readers!
4 comments:
You've misspelt 'whet'.
Funny you should say that, that's what I thought initially as well. On checking, it is apparently correct. However, if I'd chosen "whet you appetite" that would be spelt in that manner.
In the days when people all used to have their own beer mugs, some tankards were fashioned with a whistle on the rim which the drinker could use to attract the attention of bar staff. To wet someone's whistle meant to fill up their tankard so that the whistle was 'wetted'!
See http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2015/03/03/bbc_poll_tax_tony_hall_director_general_world_domination_plan/?thanks=2458138#c_2458138
Over the last few years the BBC has moved and acted (or not acted) to position itself so it can justify a blanket fee regardless of TV ownership.
Cleverly and dishonestly, it has position the iplayer without any actual controls (other than very basic geographical ones) to who can view content. For example there's nothing stopping a person without a TV license watching live TV on iplayer.. yet all it would take would be a 'Enter the serial from your TV license' to access live BBC content. Not foolproof but at least a step. Cynically, BBC has made no attempt to restrict usage and hence now uses this justify they are universal.
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