Well, the BBC response to the Budget has almost been as sneering and begrudging as that of Miliband. I heard Peston earlier today and he was doing all he could to make it all seem a bit of a flop. I also understand that one Labour MP was on BBC Newsnight last evening to inform us that “People can’t be trusted to have their whole pension at once.’ This incredibly patronising comment seems to resonate with so many of the BBC experts as they push the line that we dare not give people choice. I suppose that is inevitable coming from an organisation that itself refuses to give us any choice as to whether we fund it? Thoughts on their coverage?

It’s Wednesday and it’s also Budget Day!  I see that the comrades at the BBC have sent Evan Davies up to Newcastle to gain insight into opinion on the state of the economy. Ah, that impartiality – I’m just surprised it wasn’t Liverpool airport! Anyway, a new Open Thread for you!

“Strong public broadcasting spurs a ‘race to the top’ between public and commercial media, raising overall standards across the industry. This contributes towards the sector’s economic success, cultural vibrancy and audience satisfaction.”

This post is based upon a speech given by Tony Hall, BBC Director-General, at the Voice of the Listener & Viewer Conference on Wednesday 27 November 2013.

From this speech come a few interesting points…the first being about the Voice of the Listener & Viewer organisation.

You might think that it was representing the viewer and listener…the general public in other words…maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t……how many of you have ever heard of it?

VLV represents the citizen and consumer interests in broadcasting, and speaks for listeners and viewers on the full range of broadcasting issues. We use our independent expertise to champion quality and diversity, respond to consultations, produce policy briefings, conduct research and work for public service broadcasting that informs, educates and entertains. We also run events and  conferences. Find out how you can support VLV, keep up with our work, or join us.

It supports the independence, integrity and secure funding of the BBC and the work of broadcasters and programme suppliers who demonstrate commitment to public service broadcasting.

However its staff seem to be, surprise surprise, packed with ex-BBC types…out of eleven board members six are ex-BBC:

Colin Browne – Chairman
Colin Browne was co-opted onto the VLV Board in March. He has wide experience of broadcasting and the media. He was Director, Corporate Affairs at the BBC from 1994-2000

Toni Charlton – Honorary Treasurer
During a 35 year career with the BBC, Toni climbed the production ladder to become an Events Producer in Television Outside Broadcasts, before doing project management roles for BBC News and five years as the Chief Assistant for BBC Drama.

Sophie Chalk
Sophie Chalk has worked as a producer/director in television and radio since 1989. Credits as a producer/director include TVam, GTMV, Sky News, Yorkshire Television, Jazz FM, BBC World Service and Radio 4. She set up the independent production company, Rooftop Productions in 1998, and joined IBT as Director of Campaigns in 2006

David Eggington
A VLV visit to BBC Radio Merseyside in 1999 led to him becoming a volunteer member of the station’s ‘A’ Team for a couple of years answering listeners’ queries.

Dinah Garrett
Dinah worked for almost 20 years in corporate affairs at the BBC, finally responsible for corporate events and publications, public consultations and the BBC’s accountability programme. She devised and produced seminars, major launches and workshops for specific stakeholders and interest groups around the UK and in Europe.

Wendy Jones
Wendy Jones is a  journalist and communications specialist with an extensive background in broadcasting. Her BBC career included nine years as education correspondent, reporting/presenting for Today and other news and current affairs programmes, and roles as deputy secretary and head of edcuation policy and public affairs.

Amongst many current objectives are these, to:

• Safeguard the independence of BBC governance and the quality and range of BBC programmes and services by supporting the licence fee until such time as another method is developed that provides the same benefits
• Support the principles of public service broadcasting around the world.

Hmmm…seems more like an undercover arm of the BBC…..influencing government PSB media policy on behalf of the BBC by stealth.

It does seem more concerned with protecting the Public Service Broadcasters than with connecting the viewer and listener to those PSB organisations and having their voices heard within them….as you can see here that is a major aim of the VLV….and much appreciated by the BBC:

What they say about VLV

“British Broadcasting is the best in the world, but now its future is threatened. If you want to help ensure its quality, please join me in supporting VLV which is doing so much to protect the principle of public service in broadcasting.”  –          Sir David Attenborough

“it (VLV) has emerged as the most important champion of television and radio consumers by consistently pressing for the retention and extension of high-quality public service broadcasting”. – Roy Greenslade

“the BBC’s senior managers regard it (VLV) as the only organisation that speaks from the licence-payer’s perspective while offering passionate support for public service broadcasting” – Tim Luckhurst

You can make your own mind up about just how far down the road the VLV has gone to being an advocate for the BBC rather than for its listeners and viewers but Tony Hall’s speech has other interesting points….

This sentence stood out:

‘Nothing makes the case for the BBC more eloquently than what we do in news.’

Well not even those in the BBC believe that….Paxman has famously slated BBC news as consisting mostly of press releases and being reactive rather than proactive not seeking out stories and investigating events and issues……yesterday I posted comments by Nic Newman who also criticised BBC news, amongst others.

So no, BBC news, as is, does not make the case for the existence of the BBC…the grand philosophy behind the concept makes a case for a PSB news service but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

Hall stated this:

I want to make three arguments today. First, that the existence of the BBC is essential to the production of high-quality programmes and content.

Second, that licence fee payers have a right to expect not just quality but also value for money.

And third, that making continual efficiency savings leaves the BBC facing very hard choices about the work it does. And we will need you – the viewer, the listener and the licence fee payer – as our guide and support as we make these decisions.

You can judge for yourself how the BBC does on those points but here is another splendid one that Hall makes:

I want a BBC that feels different, where our audiences are on the inside, helping us to be the best we can be.

A central part of my vision for the BBC is that it is not just paid for by its viewers and listeners, it belongs to them, to you. The sense of ownership that I want to create is the direct descendant of your original protest. Digital technology now means that we are able to hand to our listeners and viewers a huge amount of control that 30 years ago we kept to ourselves.

No listener or viewer should ever have to feel a sense of powerless frustration that the BBC they want has succumbed to a BBC they didn’t ask for, because in future individuals will have the ability to control the BBC themselves.

Of course that isn’t what you think…you might think I want a BBC that reports the truth about the EU or immigration, or Labour’s responsibility for the economic crash or Islam…….that’s not what he means…Hall is merely allowing you to watch the programme you want when you want…maybe.

So that sense of powerless frustration that you are getting a BBC that you didn’t ask for…still going to be there.

Hall likes his figures…especially if they are presenting the BBC in a good light.

Here he compares the BBC 20 years ago and today:

Note the BBC has 42% share of TV and Radio…so pretty dominant.

Hall goes on to talk up the BBC based on a BBC survey carried out by Populus.  He claims the BBC are top of the pile…a global leader….but that is slightly disingenuous because it is based not on a global poll about the BBC but on a poll conducted in each country about their own TV services…

The UK came out top.

72% of people here said that UK TV programmes overall are of good quality – the highest out of all the countries surveyed. And out of 66 major TV channels around the world, BBC One came out top.

He does say ‘72% of people here‘ but that is easily overlooked especially in a speech and gives a rather better impression of the BBC than perhaps it deserves.

This is of course part of Hall’s strategy when talking to government, part of the negotiations for the Charter renewal…..the People love and value the BBC above all others Hall assures, persuades Government….the Empire is striking back…and as you may have just heard the proposal to make not paying a TV license fee a civil offence has been amended…after enormous BBC pressure apparently No 10 has ‘persuaded’ the author, MP Andrew Bridgen, to allow a change that now delays implementation until the Charter renewal talks begin.

Another part is his reference to this study, commissioned by the BBC:

Global study confirms public service broadcasting has positive effect on commercial broadcasting

Public service broadcasting promotes a ‘race to the top’ with the commercial sector, according to a new report published by the BBC today.

Daniel Wilson, BBC Head of International Policy, says: “The suggestion that the BBC and public service broadcasting crowd out commercial investment misunderstands the dynamics at play in the UK creative sector. In practice, the BBC’s presence has had the opposite effect.

No surprise that this is the same argument that Harriet ‘we’re all BBC now’ Harman deploys when she demands special treatment for the Labour friendly broadcaster.

So pardon me for being sceptical about a very self-serving report that makes the BBC the crucial inspiration and driving force  creating quality, competition (ha ha) and innovation in broadcasting in this country.

The BBC are hustling this story on every news bulletin and, Newsnight like, whipping it up into a candy floss confection of spin, smear and half truths….note trigger words and phrases embedded to suggest a very clear line of thought…‘guilty secrets‘ being destroyed:

Met Police corruption probe papers shredded ‘over two days’

New details about the mass shredding of documents relating to a corruption inquiry in the Metropolitan Police have been uncovered by BBC News.

It is understood the inquiry produced a “lorry-load” of material and that the shredding took place over two days.

The material that was shredded was from a broader, top-secret investigation into possible police corruption that began in 1993 and came to be known as Operation Othona.

Operation Othona is understood to have generated so much material that it is highly unlikely it could have been destroyed by mistake.

Former officers and staff with experience of record keeping in the Met at the time have told the BBC the mass shredding was disturbing, bizarre and suspicious.

It has bolstered the possibility that the material was deleted because it contained information that implicated officers or damaged the force’s reputation....They also said it was highly unusual to destroy paper records of recent investigations.

However, the ex-officers could not rule out an innocent explanation for the shredding.

What the BBC doesn’t report is the actual words of the Lawrence inquiry review which suggested that any order to ‘smear’ the Lawrences would likely have been verbal and so not in the records…so shredding wouldn’t be necessary to hide that…and that shredding records was routine rather than ‘bizarre, disturbing and suspicious‘…

Page 27

There is no surviving record that we have seen that supports Mr Francis’ claim that he, or any other officer, was tasked to report back intelligence that might be used to ‘smear’ or undermine the Lawrence family. However, the weight of the material that we have considered makes it clear that the majority of the records of SDS work in the era have been destroyed. In addition, if there had been such tasking, it would most likely have been oral rather than recorded in writing.

Page 21

There are very few documentary records capable of providing insight into the veracity of Mr Francis’ claim that he was “tasked to find intelligence that might be used by the MPS to smear the Lawrence family”.  A number of possible explanations have been advanced as to why.

These include the suggestion that incoming intelligence reports were routinely destroyed after SDS office analysis and intermittent ‘document review’.

As with other MPS records, it does not appear that any clear records were ever kept of what was being destroyed.  Accordingly, in our view little weight can be attached to the fact that no record can be found to confirm any relevant aspect of claimed SDS activity.

Routine destruction is one of ‘a number of possibilities’…but it is the one the Review highlighted…presumably as the most likely…..and the one the BBC ignores….despite the Review suggesting ‘ little weight can be attached to the fact that no record can be found to confirm any relevant aspect of claimed SDS activity.‘

The BBC is attaching quite a lot of weight to the allegations….there may be substance to them but the BBC looks to have already found the Met. guilty.

From WUWT:

It turns out that it is the Potheads and not the Petrolheads who are destroying the planet with vast clouds of CO2, guzzling water vast resources and using huge quantities of electricity……

• During California’s growing season, outdoor grows consumed roughly 60 million gallons of water a day – 50% more than is used by all residents of San Francisco.
• In California, indoor pot growing accounts for about 9% of household electricity use.
• For every pound of pot grown indoors, 4600lbs of carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere. California’s production equates to emissions of 3 million cars.

Not saying any of the creative types at the BBC who lecture us about climate change should be feeling any guilt, nor their artistically gifted friends….but dude..you’re destroying the planet!!!  Stick to cocaine man, it’s more environmentally friendly!

Something else to thank the BBC for…….

Press reform: Tighter regulation planned for Britain ‘poses worldwide threat’

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) said that British plans to introduce tighter regulation of the press through a Royal Charter posed a “worldwide” threat to international press freedom.

“Given the UK’s continued influence over developing nations where media are essential for the spread of democratic values, the future of a free, independent press that can hold power to account is under threat worldwide,” it said.

The Society of Editors today seized on the WAN-IFRA findings as evidence that politicians were compromising the workings of a free press.

“The conclusions of such a distinguished international organisation about press freedom in the UK is a sad and damning indictment of the political classes in a country that prides itself on being the mother of modern democracy,” said Bob Satchwell, the society’s Executive Director.

London, with 681 cases of MDR-TB recorded in 2012, and nearly 3,500 cases of TB overall, is regarded as the “TB capital of Western Europe”. Globally, only half of MDR-TB’s victims survive.

“one of the gravest public health threats facing the world today”

‘Journalism in the age of mobile and social media’ gives insight into the current culture of reporting by Nic Newman, a digital strategist and founding member of the BBC News website.

Newman tells us that there is a ‘dreadful state of affairs’ in news broadcasting now that social media has burst upon the scene and normal people can shape and share their own narratives.

Amusingly he also says that news is increasingly celebrity obsessed and ‘many of my journalistic heroes sound increasingly shrill and out of touch’…..at which point he puts up this slide…….

Ouch!

Here’s the video……

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDgLY8s3UHI

Newman tells us that the growth of social media drives how people use news and therefore how it is made.

If news isn’t shared, he says, it has no value and people only share simplistic stories that do not need interpretation or analysis…..however very long, indepth reports do get picked up and read…it is the medium sized articles that are ignored…all too often those provided by the BBC:

“Too much reporting is 700-word articles that everyone else has got,” Delaney [from Buzzfeed] said. He explained that the site either published articles of less than 500 words, or else more in-depth and analytical features of around 1,200 words.

‘As you can see, much of what Delaney says about the ‘middle zone’ of 500 to 800 words makes sense. The BBC seemed to be the one publisher whose articles were consistently in this range. These were almost all news stories rather than features, analysis or commentary.’

The BBC is not providing the context, analysis and nuance for its news…and so not really providing the news if it cannot be interpreted by the reader in the fullest sense….they are especially guilty of this on radio bulletins.

Of course much of the time that suits the BBC as to provide such context would undermine the narrative….as with Thatcher and mine closures…..let’s not mention that the NUM called Labour’s pit closure policy disastrous…it ‘decimated the industry’ with ‘madhouse economics’.

And so on for many other subjects that the BBC try to use to bash the Tories with.

However the BBC is storming Twitter:

BuzzFeed and BBC revealed as February’s most-shared news sites on Facebook and Twitter

On Twitter the BBC has the highest number of shares, with just under 25 million in February.

“There are different motivations for sharing and different relationships. Twitter is public, there are professional relationships mixed with personal ones there and those dynamics create a different type of sharing atmosphere and I think without Twitter you’d lose a lot of the fast reaction to news stories.”

140 characters on Twitter…..might be worrying if that that is where people get their news from and don’t bother to read any further….very open to abuse or misinterpretation…….ie…news from Gaza….frequently twisted by BBC journo’s bias….but of course the Tweets go around the world and become fact and stay ‘fact’ as any complaints and corrections get no where near the same coverage.

As noted here by ‘Is the BBC biased’ it took over two years to get a final decision on a complaint about BBC coverage of the Middle East.

The story though is already history and has become part of the legend, the narrative of the Middle East….a fact that will keep being brought up by internet searches ad infinitum.

The BBC knows this happens….hence its knowingly inaccurate report by Chris Cook on Newsnight that told us the Government was ‘suppressing a report on immigration that was incendiary and undermined its case for immigration control’.

Trouble was that was complete nonsense…the government wasn’t suppressing anything….and the report said nothing new that hadn’t already been published in 2012.

However the story was splashed across the headlines and went ‘viral’….it is now established fact that the government suppressed an incendiary report and that immigration is beneficial to us all.

The BBC’s job is done….they lied, they knew they lied, but it doesn’t matter because once the lie gets out there is no way to recall it.

When the legend becomes fact print the legend.

This is the full report from Newman  on-line:

JOURNALISM MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY PREDICTIONS 2014

John Sweeney spends 8 days undercover in North Korea.

BBC News head of programmes Ceri Thomas said: “This is an important piece of public interest journalism.” Asked whether that justified putting student lives at risk, he replied: “We think it does.”

This is John Sweeney trying to defend his actions (and failing):

North Korea is….‘A state that is more like Hitler’s Germany than any other state in the world, It is extraordinarily scary, dark and evil….. We maintain all of the students were aware of the risk.’

Clearly not………

BBC Panorama breached safety guidelines by sending undercover team into North Korea using LSE students, internal report finds

A controversial BBC Panorama programme which sent an undercover team into North Korea, pretending to be a group of LSE students, has breached a number of editorial guidelines.

A report by the corporation’s Trust said the BBC failed to ensure the students were aware of the risks involved in the trip.

Although the Trust believed there was a ‘strong public interest’ in the broadcast, it said the BBC ‘failed to consider a number of important issues and risks, and failed to deal with them appropriately’.

In its report published today, the Trust’s editorial standards committee said: ‘The provision of information to the students who took part in the trip was insufficient and inadequate, and meant the daughter of the complainant did not possess the knowledge necessary to give informed consent.’

The BBC accepts the Trust’s decision but….‘ it said that at the time the programme was being made, it believed they were being treated ‘fairly’.’

So…it doesn’t accept the decision then.

I would have thought it completely obvious that you should not exploit non-BBC staff in this manner and take such risks with a state that you acknowledge is ‘ more like Hitler’s Germany than any other state in the world.’

What did we learn from Sweeney’s little indulgence in the Public interest?….not a lot.

All the usual suspects are coming out of the woodwork….

The BBC has certainly turned rightward since Mason left…..because he left.

Glenn Greenwald…flogging state secrets to a newspaper.  State secrets stolen by Snowden who was probably a Russian agent and is now safely back in the USSR.

Nice work Glenn.

Yes Mehdi, you did write the same in 2009…hope you got some royalties from the boy wonder.

And look…the opportunistic issues junky has no shame:

Looks like Crow was equally impressed by the young whippersnapper…or is that indigestion?

Still someone is impressed by Jones….

The same Billy Bragg who thought Wedgie Benn wasn’t a Marxist…..never mind that Benn thought Benn was a Marxist:

‘….after Caroline Benn gave him a copy of the Communist Manifesto, Benn wrote: “Without having read any Communist text, I had come to Marx’s view.” ‘

Guess that sums up the problem….people who think Benn wasn’t a Marxist and people who think the BBC isn’t leftwing.

Who is telling who fairytales?

Owen Jones keeps posting these photos of him with iconic leftwing figures hoping some of their glory will rub off on him no doubt…..all I can say is don’t sit next to Owen Jones……