Post by Teddy Bear on Jan 16, 2014 17:53:07 GMT
Trust me, she's being sarcastic.
But as anybody who's ever complained to the BBC will know, this is the prevalent mindset at the BBC, despite any and all evidence to the contrary.
But as anybody who's ever complained to the BBC will know, this is the prevalent mindset at the BBC, despite any and all evidence to the contrary.
Listen carefully: the BBC is never wrong
By Janet Daley
Some people have clearly not read the memo. Hugh Campbell for one. Speaking on behalf of the investment bank GP Bullhound which specialises in technology development, Mr Campbell had the impertinence to claim that the BBC was stifling innovation in educational technology because it was "giving away too much for free" thereby causing disincentives to creative commercial ventures.
In other words, the corporation was queering the pitch for competitive creative innovation – which in the real world, costs real money – because of the licence fee subsidy which permitted it to give away its own products.
Well Mr Campbell's wrong-headed view was quickly corrected by a BBC spokesman (or maybe a computerised refutation mechanism): "The BBC has a long history in education and learning going back to the first schools broadcast [which is to say when we had a monopoly in broadcasting]. We continue to create educational content, now across TV, radio and online [completely ignoring the fact that we now live in a completely new competitive environment].
We are always mindful of the market impact of what we do [!], and share our plans for online with other educational providers [you lucky people]." Mr Campbell obviously does not understand: the BBC never, ever does anything bad. It is the very embodiment of public virtue.
And he isn't the only one who needs to be re-educated. The new Director of BBC News, James Harding, in his first public speech since joining the Corporation last year, took the trouble to correct another widely-held misconception. It seems that poor benighted Geraldine Allinson, the chief executive of KM, the Kent newspaper group, has accused the BBC of treating local newspapers as competitors and, again, by giving away free content (subsidised by the licence fee) destroying the market for local newspapers.
Well, Mr Harding put her right with a few well-chosen sentences. The difficulties faced by those newspapers – which are never mentioned or credited by BBC regional coverage – are not the corporation's fault. To suggest that the BBC should in any way limit its local news services, or avoid monopolising the field, is just mistaken. So have we got that absolutely clear? The BBC is the only institution in human history which is never wrong, OK?
By Janet Daley
Some people have clearly not read the memo. Hugh Campbell for one. Speaking on behalf of the investment bank GP Bullhound which specialises in technology development, Mr Campbell had the impertinence to claim that the BBC was stifling innovation in educational technology because it was "giving away too much for free" thereby causing disincentives to creative commercial ventures.
In other words, the corporation was queering the pitch for competitive creative innovation – which in the real world, costs real money – because of the licence fee subsidy which permitted it to give away its own products.
Well Mr Campbell's wrong-headed view was quickly corrected by a BBC spokesman (or maybe a computerised refutation mechanism): "The BBC has a long history in education and learning going back to the first schools broadcast [which is to say when we had a monopoly in broadcasting]. We continue to create educational content, now across TV, radio and online [completely ignoring the fact that we now live in a completely new competitive environment].
We are always mindful of the market impact of what we do [!], and share our plans for online with other educational providers [you lucky people]." Mr Campbell obviously does not understand: the BBC never, ever does anything bad. It is the very embodiment of public virtue.
And he isn't the only one who needs to be re-educated. The new Director of BBC News, James Harding, in his first public speech since joining the Corporation last year, took the trouble to correct another widely-held misconception. It seems that poor benighted Geraldine Allinson, the chief executive of KM, the Kent newspaper group, has accused the BBC of treating local newspapers as competitors and, again, by giving away free content (subsidised by the licence fee) destroying the market for local newspapers.
Well, Mr Harding put her right with a few well-chosen sentences. The difficulties faced by those newspapers – which are never mentioned or credited by BBC regional coverage – are not the corporation's fault. To suggest that the BBC should in any way limit its local news services, or avoid monopolising the field, is just mistaken. So have we got that absolutely clear? The BBC is the only institution in human history which is never wrong, OK?