8th July 2008
BBC: One into Four
Tony King whose devastating report on the ‘metropolitan mind-set” of the BBC last month delivered the most damning verdict on BBC news since Hutton was accused of using ’strong’ and ‘colourful language’ by Michael Lyons, Chair of the BBC Trust, as he appeared before the House of Commons Culture Select Committee this morning. This is harsh criticism from an Englishman who prefer their official reports ‘weak’ and ‘bland’. I pointed out the mountain of evidence on which it had been based - the 136 times that health and education stories were covered by the network, all exclusively in relating to England; the fact that ‘almost none of the BBC’s 2007 election coverage dealt with Wales in any way”; the entire series of Panorama that failed to mention the devolved administrations at all.
Next week the Trust meets to discuss its Action Plan. We should demand three things as a first step in redresssing London-centricity: a Welsh all-inclusive news hour at Six, a Welsh opt-out for Newsnight as in Scotland and more network reporters based in Wales. The ultimate solution is, of course, as Samir Shah, the BBC’s non-executive director, has argued a federal BBC composed of distinct national broadcasters with power over commissioning and scheduling devolved. Only then will the BBC start to look like Britain as it is and not the top-heavy, ’One BBC’ monolith that belongs to a pre-devolutionary age
Mark Thompson did at least take the opportunity to reject the Scottish Labour Party’s accusation of SNP-bias in BBC Scotland. Is it me or is Labour increasingly sounding desperate, paranoid and pathetic?
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