BBC & The Future | Vital Football

BBC & The Future

wittonite

I speak from a point of total ignorance
Copper shouts I'll choke you out - 3 day uproar.

Two police officers were punched in the face while another had their wrist broken while trying to restrain a man at a home in west London. The Met said the male and female officers who were punched in the face...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53874028

Barely lasted an hour on the BBC headlines page.
Doesnt fit the BBC narrative of the moment.
 
Not just the BBC either, Sky and the rest aren't much better really either.
I know I am being sold the editor, and owners story whatever news you watch, but I watch Al jazeera a fair bit, because the interviewers allow the interview to build, rather than continually try to lead the interviewee where they want them to go.
Some great documentaries aswell.
 
A couple of things:

1) The headlines on the BBC webpage are driven by popularity. Not many people click on it: it disappears off the frontpage, but it'll still be on the News page for the area it happened.

2) The Last Night of the Proms thing is fucking hilarious. Seen Last Night of the Proms for Rule Britannia? The amazing rousing bit where the orchestra and choir are joined by all the thousands of people crammed into the... oh shit yeah; there won't be a crowd because of COVID.

So the suggestion was to do something different this year to stop the pathetic sight of about ten people trying to do the singing of a couple thousand. The private press (who obviously hate the BBC being publicly funded) jump all over it for a day before the BBC confirm that the bit is happening anyway, but too late and we're still all arguing about it now and talking about the horrible anti-British BBC and we should definitely defund it so the only news we can get comes from Rupert fucking Murdoch who loves us all and only wants the best for us.

 
A couple of things:

1) The headlines on the BBC webpage are driven by popularity. Not many people click on it: it disappears off the frontpage, but it'll still be on the News page for the area it happened.

2) The Last Night of the Proms thing is fucking hilarious. Seen Last Night of the Proms for Rule Britannia? The amazing rousing bit where the orchestra and choir are joined by all the thousands of people crammed into the... oh shit yeah; there won't be a crowd because of COVID.

So the suggestion was to do something different this year to stop the pathetic sight of about ten people trying to do the singing of a couple thousand. The private press (who obviously hate the BBC being publicly funded) jump all over it for a day before the BBC confirm that the bit is happening anyway, but too late and we're still all arguing about it now and talking about the horrible anti-British BBC and we should definitely defund it so the only news we can get comes from Rupert fucking Murdoch who loves us all and only wants the best for us.

Those that want to watch it pay for it.
 
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Those that want to watch it pay for it.
So then they'll make what gets them more viewers, just like everyone else. The point of a public broadcaster is that along with popular programming, they can afford to make high quality but niche interest programmes on the side that just wouldn't get produced under any other model. Go and speak to anyone with the BBC available to them now that has lived somewhere without it and almost to a person they'll tell you that to get rid of it would be insane. Insane.

They have a difficult job and are under constant attack from those with commercial and political interest in seeing it gone. That goes for populists on both left and right because they know that the BBC, even now, has more credibility than any other news organisation out there and if a BBC programme criticises you it hurts.
 
Have to agree. The BBC simultaneously enrages the left and the right. The left see them as right wing Tory shills and the right seems them as ultra liberal social justice warriors.

If the BBC's future is in jeopardy it's precisely because it is under pressure in at least two major ways, one you have a government committed to destroying it and they have to play nice with them, the other is in how it has almost been forced into a sort of tabloid populism in order to drive enough of a viewership in key dayparts and generate enough clicks on it's website and social media.

At it's best the BBC still makes terrific programs and has wonderful education initiatives, it still has a very good radio offering as well. It is well worth keeping as far as I'm concerned.
 
It's an absolute fucking bargain, and I think it should just be wound into general taxation, like roads, schools, hospitals and all the other public services, because that's what it is.
 
It's an absolute fucking bargain, and I think it should just be wound into general taxation, like roads, schools, hospitals and all the other public services, because that's what it is.
No its not a bargain. Its only a bargain if you want to watch its output, and I dont.
So how is it a bargain.
To reiterate, if those that want to watch it pay for it, great no problem.
The fact is however that if the BBC were forced to stand on its own two feet it would go under.
 
The BBC was always the channel to turn to in times of strife and crisis, but now since the yogurt knitting, Jesus creeper lefties took over it wouldn't bother me if it disappeared forever.
Don't let the fact that for the last 5 years the Tories have literally appointed who they want to the board get in the way of that narrative.
 
No its not a bargain. Its only a bargain if you want to watch its output, and I dont.
So how is it a bargain.
To reiterate, if those that want to watch it pay for it, great no problem.
The fact is however that if the BBC were forced to stand on its own two feet it would go under.
The same argument can be made for hospitals, free school meals, roads or schools themselves but it doesn't end anywhere good. Whether something is a public good or not shouldn't be argued on whether it can make a profit.
 
The same argument can be made for hospitals, free school meals, roads or schools themselves but it doesn't end anywhere good. Whether something is a public good or not shouldn't be argued on whether it can make a profit.
No it cant, because we all have had or will have use for some of those in our life time.
The BBC is not for the public good.
 
The BBC makes plenty of profit. It would make more if it didn't pay such batshit wages out because being commercial on that front isn't it's remit but it prefers to hound single mums and OAP's to fund the Xmas party instead.

The BBC is needed...but it's not relevant in its setup anymore.
 
The BBC makes plenty of profit. It would make more if it didn't pay such batshit wages out because being commercial on that front isn't it's remit but it prefers to hound single mums and OAP's to fund the Xmas party instead.

The BBC is needed...but it's not relevant in its setup anymore.
You don't know what wages the other broadcasters pay because only BBC is legally obliged to do so.
The BBC "hounds" people for non-payment of the licence fee because that's the legal framework for their funding and if that's how the Govt has it set up what are they supposed to do? Say "it's alright lads we won't do anything if you don't pay your licence"? The private broadcasters and the Govt would absolutely LOVE for them to do that because it would end the BBC.
 
The BBC makes plenty of profit. It would make more if it didn't pay such batshit wages out because being commercial on that front isn't it's remit but it prefers to hound single mums and OAP's to fund the Xmas party instead.

The BBC is needed...but it's not relevant in its setup anymore.
Why is the BBC needed.
 
No it cant, because we all have had or will have use for some of those in our life time.
The BBC is not for the public good.
Not everyone needs free school meals. Not everyone uses the benefits system. Not everyone uses public roads to out of the way places. Some people spend their lives in and out of hospital and others barely go between being born and dropping dead. Public libraries, subsidised sports facilities, and so on.
Open University programmes, documentaries on BBC 4, Last Night of the Proms(!!!), amongst hundreds of other examples don't exist without a publicly funded BBC. Just because you hate them and boycott them or whatever, it's a pretty selfish take to want to remove that for everyone else.