Concerns re- attack on the BBC--pls help get the word out!

[snot]

I still have yet to hear any significant coverage of the proposed cuts and changes at the BBC. So went and looked at their "Green Paper", which you can download here: http://www.bbccharterreview.org.uk/have_your_say/green_paper/greenpaper_home.html#1

I note a number of features that raise troubling questions for me.

Trust members are to be recommended by the Prime Minister. The whole reason for establishing the Trust as the BBC's governing body is supposedly that the old Board was both the management and the body in charge of assessing BBC performance, and that this involved a conflict of interest. That seems reasonable, until you consider that the Prime Minister has been in direct conflict with the BBC over its reporting on him; so putting him in charge of selecting its Trustees would seem merely to be replacing one conflict of interest with another of much more serious import.

The Trust is supposed to be more responsive to the desires of the public. (Nevermind that 3/4 of the public were perfectly happy with the BBC sans any of these changes.) The public's wishes are to be assessed through research. Doesn't address who does the research or how.

The justification for the staff cutbacks is that funds are needed in order for the BBC to take the lead in bringing about a "digital switch-over" accessible to "have-nots" as well as "haves". I'm no geek, but off-hand, it seems arguable that this means cutting back on news staffing in order to ensure future HDTV sales, or something like that. But someone who knows better than I can perhaps explain.

More programming is to be privatized. C.f. U.S. use of private contractors in Iraq--by no means perfectly similar, but illustrates the dangers. To me, raises possibility that they just don't trust BBC staff to make programs that are conservative enough to suit them, so they want to outsource more to their buddies.

The BBC is a crucial source of info for us all--one of the last remaining non-'net outlets that works properly. I am not a member of any other media forums, etc.; if you are and can post there, or can otherwise help alert folks to these concerns, many thanks!