hello and welcome to another rant from the grumps
the weekend is turning out to be the usual bank holiday weekend wet and windy with storm katie bringing a horrible bank holiday to all.
so why not open a bottle ( good idea grumps.. ) ED....
oi not my best brandy and snuggle up with your old pal grumpy.
now the mirror yes that rag that belongs in the lavatory claims that the politicians are attacking the bbc but we need the licence fee to keep auntie strong i have my own views on this but i,ll let you read the story first.
The Tories want to cut its funding and tame it, the Eurosceptics are angry and even Sir Alex Ferguson waged a feud – but we'd miss the Beeb if it wasn't there With so many powerful people taking a pop at it, the BBC should stand for Battered Bruised and Concussed.
Critics would counter that Big Bloated and Complacent is more like it with too many managers earning too much public money
Even its former director general Greg Dyke had a go at it saying it’s part of a cosy Establishment “conspiracy blocking necessary changes in democracy.
The BBC dutifully reported his comments on its website which is more than other organisations would do.
The world’s most successful football manager Sir Alex Ferguson had a seven-year feud with the BBC after it screened a documentary he didn’t like The then Manchester United boss would not appear on Match of the Day and stopped BBC cameras filming him at Old Trafford
He accused the broadcaster of being “arrogant beyond belief and vowed never to talk to them again before eventually relenting.
London mayor and wannabe PM Boris Johnson says the BBC is “statist, corporatist, defeatist, anti-business and Europhile.
Right wing politicians think the BBC is biased towards the left and leftie ones believe it swings right The Brexit mob of Eurosceptics are now convinced the BBC supports Britain remaining in Europe and skews its reports accordingly.
David Cameron wants to pillage the BBC’s £3.7billion licence fee revenue while Culture Secretary John Whittingdale is trying to turn it into the British Government Broadcasting Corporation.
It’s history repeating itself. Winston Churchill wanted the Government to take over the BBC during the 1926 General Strike but was thwarted, and the corporation has been the nation’s independent voice ever since.
The BBC took on the £700million cost of giving over 75s free TV licences. But Whittingdale now says that won’t be taken into account in the final financial settlement when its charter comes up for renewal in December.
That’s like the BBC and Whittingdale going on a pub crawl only for the Culture Secretary to back out of standing his round because he’s forgotten his wallet.
UKIP’s Nigel Farage would cut the licence from £145.50 a year to £48.15 meaning more channels condemned to the online fate of BBC3.
When a licence was introduced for radio in 1922 it cost 10 shillings, that’s 50p in today’s money. And a hefty sum for a manual labourer earning just £1.40 a week.
The problem with the licence fee is it’s a tax on watching television which goes against the Tory ideological grain They can’t see a tax without wanting to cut it, or a public sector body which would not benefit from privatisation. That’s why both the BBC and the NHS are under attack And as voters like tax cuts, too, we’re complicit in the conspiracy by our silence.
Whittingdale also wants the BBC Trust, which oversees the corporation, to be replaced by a powerful new body dominated by government appointees BBC boss Tony Hall says instead it should be “transparent and independent, at arm’s length from the government.
Quite right. Would you trust government lickspittles to be in charge of the news which criticises them and their pals? Turning a public service broadcaster into a state broadcaster would also make for brain-numbingly dull broadcasting TV in this country is still high quality because a publicly funded BBC which does not have to rely on advertisers sets the benchmark And there are legitimate questions over whether EastEnders , Strictly and The Voice meet the BBC’s public service remit when they would sit just as well on commercial channels.
The BBC argues its job includes making shows lots of people want to watch. Why so, if those programmes still appeared but elsewhere?
Tony Hall has tried to soften criticism of management practices brilliantly satirised by Hugh Bonneville in W1A. Screened on the BBC of course But the Director General still gets paid £450,000-a-year, less than the £671,000 DG Mark Thompson earned but still three times more than the PM.
The BBC’s first boss, high-minded, moralistic Lord Reith, set the direction in 1922 when he demanded “authentic impartial news listeners could trust. And polls today show the BBC is still the most trusted national institution If Lord Reith is the father of the BBC then Radio 4 Today presenter John Humphrys is its natural son. His rudeness to politicians is consistent and impartial, a one-man aggressive awkward squad. Which is just what a political interrogator should be.
Even during World War II when our survival was at stake it was recognised that a trusted news source was a more potent weapon than propaganda While German radio reported only Axis victories the BBC told of Allied defeats. So reliable was it even the Nazi high-command listened in to find out what was going on.
The integrity of BBC correspondents became legendary. Richard Dimbleby threatened to quit in 1945 if the BBC delayed his report on the horrors of Belsen I must declare an interest. I’m one of those telly tarts who’s been popping up on the BBC for 20 years and I’ll be on the News Channel tonight reviewing tomorrow’s newspapers But then I appear on Sky and ITV, too.
The BBC is known as Auntie although no one quite knows why. Perhaps it has something to do with those reassuring and kindly aunts and uncles who presented kids programmes in the early days The BBC remains an ever presence in family life which we would miss dreadfully if it wasn’t there Like the NHS.
Politicians are attacking the BBC again – but we need licence fee to keep our Auntie strong - Mirror Online
AAG
really... we would miss the beeb only if you,re a fan of such tripe as eastenders the voice or strictly come dancing.
the bbc has and always will be a state sponsered government propoganda channel promoting the luvvey lefties charter of multi culti ethnic diversity where we all live happily under this rainbow and adopt a pro EU stance while protecting paedophiles like jimmy saville, gary glitter, rolf harris and others who worked at the beeb and knew that this kind of perversion was going on behind closed doors at television centre while showing you only what news nanny state thinks you need to see.
the beeb is an outdated dinsour that was extinct long ago and the licence fee a stealth tax on which to pay these luvvies a obscene amount of money which the working man could only dream of or hope to win on the national lottery.
the bbc or bias broadcasting company does need to be privatised
( you actually agree with something the tories have said )... ED
and be made accountable to the public and show both sides of the story not just their own biased views like the specially picked audiences on question time its time to end the licence fee and make auntie take advertising like everyone else.
auntie beeb under attack by the nasty party... the AA grumpy column
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the grumps
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- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2010 5:34 am
auntie beeb under attack by the nasty party... the AA grumpy column
Well, there is always Murdoch.
The home of the soul is the Open Road.
- DH Lawrence
- DH Lawrence
auntie beeb under attack by the nasty party... the AA grumpy column
the beeb is an outdated dinsour that was extinct long ago and the licence fee a stealth tax on which to pay these luvvies a obscene amount of money which the working man could only dream of or hope to win on the national lottery.
the bbc or bias broadcasting company does need to be privatised
( you actually agree with something the tories have said )... ED
and be made accountable to the public and show both sides of the story not just their own biased views like the specially picked audiences on question time its time to end the licence fee and make auntie take advertising like everyone else.
Have a look at american television and ask yourself do you really want to have ALL out TV like that? Adverts every ten minutes therte are many programmes I can't watch I find it so irritating. Don't watch it if you dont want to the only reason our other news outklets are relatively honest is thanks to the bbc.
were it not for the murdocj scandal the bbc woiuld aklready have been privatised by the labour party for daring to question the dodgy dossier.
the bbc or bias broadcasting company does need to be privatised
( you actually agree with something the tories have said )... ED
and be made accountable to the public and show both sides of the story not just their own biased views like the specially picked audiences on question time its time to end the licence fee and make auntie take advertising like everyone else.
Have a look at american television and ask yourself do you really want to have ALL out TV like that? Adverts every ten minutes therte are many programmes I can't watch I find it so irritating. Don't watch it if you dont want to the only reason our other news outklets are relatively honest is thanks to the bbc.
were it not for the murdocj scandal the bbc woiuld aklready have been privatised by the labour party for daring to question the dodgy dossier.