Over at Telegraph blogs Sean Thomas recalls how the BBC nicked one his ideas, and how this ties in with the ludicrous pay-offs, the unadvertised job appointments, and the overall sense of impunity within the Corporation:
…I was tempted to write a blog post on the Telegraph mentioning all this, explaining why the BBC is, for all its wonders, actually an outrageous, malign, monopolistic force in British broadcasting, like a kind of vast, retarded toad, squashing the life out of the little guys in the media, especially with the BBC’s 70 per cent dominance of UK TV news consumption, but then I remembered that I am journalist, in a struggling industry. I’m a writer with kids to feed, in a media world destabilised by the internet, where, all-too-often, the only secure employer is the BBC.
So then, like many others before me, I thought better. Because the truth is, one day soon I might need the BBC to give me a job…
(h/t George R)
He`s certainly venal and spineless enough to merit consideration as a BBC Trustie….Brave Sir Robin indeed!
‘And if you complain, you get blacklisted… then you’re stuffed.”
Welcome to the world of the licence fee payer, Sean.
Sucks not to be an unaccountable public sector monopoly, eh?
He’s making a very fair and pertinent point.
The BBC is the first to whine about the Hollywood blacklist, which effectively kept communists and neo-communists out of the US film industry. Now they do exactly the same to prevent all but the occasional token Rightie from their fiefdom.
I suspect there is an equivalence table somewhere inside the Corporation. One appearance from Dellingpole must be balaced by 20 from Bonnie Greer.,
They also like the “are you now or have you ever been ”
line.
Even used it on poor old Patrick Moore
I sympathise with his problem. The BBC is so dominant in the British media that journalists will think twice before criticising it. Such is the power of being a virtual monopoly. Perhaps ex pat journalists , safely established overseas, will be willing to tell us the truth about the BBC. But even if they did the BBC would manage to exclude the message form the news agenda of the UK.
But we must blame our Tory politicians for allowing the BBC to become so powerful and so biased. Labour can be excused because you don’t chop down your strongest supporting pillar do you? Today Cameron is scared to death of upsetting the BBC and yet the BBC will cost the Tories many votes owing to their pro Labour propaganda. Lady Thatcher should have ignored the wailing of the liberal left and privatised it in the 80’s. In retrospect it was her biggest mistake and one we have paid dearly for. She was probably the only politician who would have had the courage to do so, the rest cower before the might of the BBC.
However, am I being overly optimistic when I think that amongst the British people there is a growing scepticism about the BBC? There is a distinct move to the right in the thinking of the man in the street. The BBC can’t understand why this is, after all they have been trying to move people to the left for decades, and can’t reflect it in their liberal left biased coverage of course. Hopefully the move to the right continues , the BBC remains where it’s liberal left roots are, and the differences between what the BBC reports and what the people think grows ever wider until eventually the people demand the BBC be got rid of.
Hi there! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I
could get a captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having trouble finding one?
Thanks a lot!