The BBC is brave to spell out the motives behind Murdoch's attacks

[UpInArms]

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=437281
excerpt:

In her interview with me in this paper yesterday, she said: "He is against everything the BBC stands for. He is a capital imperialist, isn't he? ... All people of his political persuasion are against the public sector."

As Ms Heggessey pointed out, there are more than merely commercial reasons behind his attempts to destabilise the BBC - though those are important. Certainly, the insane proposal by Tony Ball, chief executive of BSkyB, to ban BBC1 from broadcasting its most popular programmes would result in viewers deserting the BBC (and abandoning support for its licence fee) and signing up for expensive Sky packages. His suggested ban on the BBC showing Hollywood movies and American sitcoms would have the same effect.

But Mr Murdoch (and Conrad Black, owner of The Daily Telegraph, for that matter) is also driven by ideology - a narrow-minded, neo-conservative worldview that any organisation in the public sector is by definition inefficient, second rate and peopled by pinkoes. The BBC - like the NHS and state schools - is thus suspect before it does anything at all. The fact that its business is competing for viewers with Murdoch's companies makes it borderline criminal.

...more...

[Cha]

1. Kick!

:kick:

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. God Bless the BBC!!!!

:dem: :kick:


Murdoch is Satan!

[xchrom]

3. going after mudoch

my heros -- gotta love it!

[AP]

4. BBC needs to be brave and own up to why it's wrong to be a publicly

funded entertainment company.

They survive on a flat tax, so the poor are basically subsidizing a network which makes a lot of money for itself and for media companies.

I have no problem with a publicly, progressively-funded news channel (so long as there is a marketplace of ideas which results in a diversity of opinions reaching the consumers). However, I have a big problem with what the BBC does. They need to privatize the entertainment parts (and have anti-monopoly laws preventing Murdoch, or anyone else dominating the airwaves), and they need to fund the public part (the news) out of progressive taxation. The poor shouldn't be forced to carry the full burden of the cost of informing the nation.