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To: Serious fans/critics of the BBC

TheParser

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I just wanted to alert you to an article about the British Broadcasting Corporation.

It appears in the December 20, 2018, (print) issue of the London Review of Books, pages 29 - 32. The title of the article is "Can't Afford to Tell the Truth" by Owen Bennett-Jones. (I cannot link; you, however, will have no trouble finding it on the Web, I'm sure.)

The general tone of the article is that reforming the BBC is, well, hopeless.



Happy reading! And Happy New Year!
 
Last edited:
I just wanted to alert you to an article about the British Broadcasting Corporation.

It appears in the December 20, 2018, (print) issue of the London Review of Books, pages 29 - 32. The title of the article is "Can't Afford to Tell the Truth" by Owen Bennett-Jones. (I cannot link; you, however, will have no trouble finding it on the Web, I'm sure.)

The general tone of the article is that reforming the BBC is, well, hopeless.



Happy reading! And Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you too.

Lots of people have different reasons for calling for reform of the BBC - from antisemitism in some reports in the past to the way the Hutton Inquiry went and its impact on the BBC's editorial output.
Certainly the BBC is no longer at the cutting edge of news updates - I have noticed that sometimes other outlets deal with breaking news much faster than the BBC - mainly because editors are fearful of getting details wrong. More recently, I've seen huge attacks on the BBC for daring to hire entertainers and paying them the appropriate high salary. Two years ago the top earners had their salaries released and they accordingly had to lower their salaries from public pressure. All that's happened is these people have since decided to go back to commercial broadcasters where they can get their financial reward and keep it quiet. Meanwhile the same people who complain at the likes of Chris Evans getting £2million a year then complain the BBC can't compete with Netflix etc or other entertainment outlets or even can't hire top talent.

You have to look at who is complaining and why they are complaining to get a Truer picture. Owen Bennett-Jones's article is a good article - but it does also reflect that it is a huge corporation that can lumber from crisis to crisis.
 
i like the BBC world service. i listen to it on NPR occasionally. it is good for Americans to hear news from a different perspective.
 
I just wanted to alert you to an article about the British Broadcasting Corporation.

It appears in the December 20, 2018, (print) issue of the London Review of Books, pages 29 - 32. The title of the article is "Can't Afford to Tell the Truth" by Owen Bennett-Jones. (I cannot link; you, however, will have no trouble finding it on the Web, I'm sure.)

The general tone of the article is that reforming the BBC is, well, hopeless.



Happy reading! And Happy New Year!

Red:
Did you read the whole essay? That isn't the tone I found it had....The last paragraph, yes, but the essay as a whole, no.
 
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