Polly Toynbee, former BBC correspondent and let-them-eat cake socialist, has framed a tub-thumping Cnut-like expression of the corporation’s sense of self-importance here. Note especially the nasty, venomous, gutter-level disdain she has for any form of broadcast competition, and, of course, Sky. True to form, she has neatly airbrushed out of the equation any consideration of the fast-fragmenting broadcasting environment and the absurdity of a hypothecated cane-the-poor, send-poor-mothers-to-jail broadcasting tax when, on top of Sky, there are dozens of free-to-air satellite channels (that aren’t Sky). And she ignores, too, streaming, which she should well know is in the process of blowing the elitist model of broadcast delivery (under which the BBC was framed) out of the water forever.
Her spleen is also vented – in true BBC fashion – on those who would dare to challenge the idea that the corporation is anything but neutral and excellent in its news coverage and programme content. She cites the Christmas series of Charles Dickens’ masterpiece Great Expectations as an exemplar of quality. Actually, Polly, as Peter Hitchens shrewdly and pithily explains here, it was a travesty of a literary adaptation and the hijacking of one our greatest stories, part of the dumbing down of our morals and our culture hat the BBC rams down our throats on a daily basis. Do her elitist pinko chums outside the BBC really believe this was artistic excellence? I doubt it.
As for claims of the neutraility of news coverage – and that, if anything, it might be too favourable to the Coalition – Ms Toynbee leaves me simply speechless. She, her colleagues-in-arms at the BBC and the Guadianista are clearly blind to the assault on journalistic standards broadcast every day and chronicled on this blog.