Election Year or Fear!

[ramAnag]

The key words are ?have to?. Unless one is particularly sneaky in avoiding all the transmission types that require the license fee to be paid, or is happy to break the law, then the license fee is pretty much compulsory, which of course is not the case with the Telelegraph or any other newspaper. Therefore I and many others feel there is a greater duty of care/ higher bar for BBC. You clearly feel it is reaching that bar, I, and after increasingly (popular phrase alert) fact checking things I have a personal doubt about, do not. I?m nowhere near thinking BBC has an overarching ?agenda? beyond impartiality but there are clear areas where some sort of influence is applied which skews the message. The recent leaked report confirms that but imo it only scratches the surface in examples given. Just my observation

I recognise your own restraint but it seems to be open season on the BBC at the moment and has been for a while. The usual suspects, i.e. various politicians on the Right are all queuing up to have a go, aided and abetted by certain sections of the public who are outraged by the behaviour of people from Savile to this latest Radio 1 DJ.

For me, the BBC does a damned good job - especially for the less than 50p per day it costs us - and usually remains as impartial as possible. A corporation of such size cannot be blamed for the behaviour of a tiny minority of employees anymore than the NHS is to blame for the behaviour of Shipman or the Education Secretary for the behaviour of one dodgy headteacher.

I believe that the current attacks on it are entirely politically orchestrated.
Did it make mistakes? Yes.
Did it make mistakes which justify the current levels of criticism or Trump’s threat to sue for a vast amount of money? No.

[Andy_Faber]

I recognise your own restraint but it seems to be open season on the BBC at the moment and has been for a while. The usual suspects, i.e. various politicians on the Right are all queuing up to have a go, aided and abetted by certain sections of the public who are outraged by the behaviour of people from Savile to this latest Radio 1 DJ.

For me, the BBC does a damned good job - especially for the less than 50p per day it costs us - and usually remains as impartial as possible. A corporation of such size cannot be blamed for the behaviour of a tiny minority of employees anymore than the NHS is to blame for the behaviour of Shipman or the Education Secretary for the behaviour of one dodgy headteacher.

I believe that the current attacks on it are entirely politically orchestrated.
Did it make mistakes? Yes.
Did it make mistakes which justify the current levels of criticism or Trump?’s threat to sue for a vast amount of money? No.

I agree for the most part it does a good/great job, and agree its currently being ganged up on, possibly for small p political reasons. My observations, which originated before the recent raising of heat on the Corp are that some of the BBC's mistakes aren't mistakes but the product of a culture and I'm guessing we'll have to disagree on that point

Trump is being a bit of a twit though

[ramAnag]

I agree for the most part it does a good/great job, and agree its currently being ganged up on, possibly for small p political reasons. My observations, which originated before the recent raising of heat on the Corp are that some of the BBC's mistakes aren't mistakes but the product of a culture and I'm guessing we'll have to disagree on that point

Trump is being a bit of a twit though

Have to disagree about the ‘small p’ and fear it’s very Political indeed.

I honestly think it’s very difficult to always remain entirely impartial. How for instance does one remain completely impartial when reporting on such issues as paed*phillia, brutal murder, rape, domestic/child abuse, terrorist bombings, starvation or, for that matter, the aggressive speech of an aggrieved recently deposed leader?

It is good to have a constructive and respectful exchange though even though we disagree on some aspects of this issue.