Reply #1: Seems odd; isn't the BBC funded by taxes on tv watching? Have people been watching less? [View All]

[snot]

I've actually been worried about the BBC since 2005, when the following little-publicized changes (among others) were made (my description from back then, based on the BBC's own "Greenpaper"):

1. The BBC's current governing body is to be replaced by a Trust. The trust members are to be recommended by the Prime Minister.

This sounds reasonable, until you consider that the Prime Minister has been in direct conflict with the BBC over its reporting on him.

2. More programming is to be privatized. C.f. the U.S. use of private contractors in Iraq, or in its electronic election technology--by no means perfectly similar, but illustrates the dangers.

3. The Trust is supposed to be made more responsive to the desires of the public. (Nevermind that, as I understand, 3/4 of the public was perfectly happy with the BBC sans any of these changes.) The public's wishes are to be assessed through research. The paper doesn't address who will do this research or what was wrong with the old research.