Dividing the BBC would end the kind of disgraceful performance by the state broadcasting service that occurred yesterday. A First Division BBC could provide official announcements, coverage of state events, an unvarnished news service both in the UK and abroad, party political broadcasts, election results, and the various kinds of public information best diffused nationally.
A Second Division BBC could provide entertainment of whatever quality or level. It could also cover everything dealt with by the First Division BBC if it liked, in any manner it chose.
Neither Division would be funded by licence fee. The First Division BBC would be funded out of general taxation and from a levy on the Second Division, and any other commercial channels. The Second Division BBC would be paid for in the same way as all the others, by subscription and advertisements.
The arts are already amply funded by various government bodies like the Arts Council and there are many charitable sources of funding available to be tapped. As for the rest of it, the chat shows, the light entertainment (I'm unsure where to put the quotation marks round those last two words), the drama, the Proms, they'll just have to fight their corner.
What we can end is broadcasting drivel and the politically incorrect warping of events in the world all given status by being under the same roof and brand name. The BBC does have a brand and a status and its theft by unrepresentative warriors in the culture wars is overwhelmingly portrayed as unacceptable in today's media.
The BBC have announced that they are proud of yesterday's coverage of events on the Thames.
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Well I went to the iPlayert to listen to the Jubilee Service. It cuts off before the end, in mid song.
Hmmmphh.
I only saw a few minutes of it. Then over to Sky.
Somehow the BBC believes that balance means giving equal time to republicans and monarchists. Why they thought that debate could be framed without any statistics,data or impartial scrutiny is a mystery.
Strangely when it's supporters for and against the Olympics this "in the interests of balance" does not apply. And the debate about taxation funding of broadcasters is another area where balance doesn't get a look in.
I
They were still at it today. How hard can it be to show us the horses and the carriages and the soldiers and the crowds - and the choirboys and the congregation singing. Surely they must have heard that no-one wants their interviews and their inadequate rhetoric?
Putting the 'credits' over the fireworks was an act of aggression.
Their politics are questionable, their funding is outrageous but their professional failure reflects on the whole country where once their professional success could set universal standards.
On behalf of the musicians - composers and performers - involved in the celebrations:
http://any2words.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/cock-up-or-conspiracy.html
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