Chris Patten to be New BBC Chairman

[Teddy Bear]

Recently, Jeremy Hunt criticised the BBC and accused them of 'institutional bias'..

I don't know what particular part of their bias he is aware of, as he only referred at the time to the fact that most BBC staff are Labour or Lib-Dem supporters, and then criticised them for airing the FIFA scandal just prior to their decision on who would host the World Cup, which was felt scuppered British chances.

Having now announced that Chris Patten is most likely to take over from Michael Lyons as Head of the BBC Trust, it makes me think that Hunt must be one of the most ignorant and impotent Culture Secretary's imaginable.

Of all the areas a Conservative could find the BBC guilty of bias then one would imagine their perceived priority to redress it would be
1. Anti -Tory / pro-Labour
2. Pro-EU
3. Pro-Immigration
4. Anti-Cuts as imposed by the Tories
5. Anti special relationship with USA except as bestowed by Obama.
6. Anti Iraq War
6. Anti Israel - pro militant Muslims

So picking Chris Patten, who was described in the Guardian in 2005 as being Less Tory than Tony Blair, who openly criticised George Bush and the 'special relationship', then European Commissioner for external relations, clearly favouring our EU status, opposed the Iraq War, and is President of Medical Aid for Palestinians, would seem like a very poor thought out choice to counter this bias.

In fact, now the BBC can pursue their bias and point out to their detractors that it is a Tory that oversees them, so how can they be left wing biased?
Seems that Hunt has played right in to their hands.

I think the mis-pronouncement made of his name a few weeks by some BBC presenters, putting a C in front of his name, were not wide of the mark.

What a jerk.

Chris Patten to be new BBC chairman
Lord Patten of Barnes, the Tory grandee and last governor of Hong Kong, is to be appointed the new chairman of the BBC.

By Andrew Porter, Political Editor 4:43PM GMT 18 Feb 2011

A former chairman of the Conservative party, he has got the vital backing from David Cameron to take over from Sir Michael Lyons as head of the BBC Trust.
The appointment comes at a highly sensitive time for the corporation and will mark a return of a Tory to the top of the BBC after successive chairmen who were deemed close to Labour.
Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, who made the recommendation to No10 after interviewing candidates, told the Prime Minister that Lord Patten was “head and shoulders” above the other candidates.

Mr Hunt believes that Lord Patten will be able to stand up to the BBC over controversial aspects of its running including senior salaries and expenses. He has experience of dealing with highly-charged political issues and has a reputation for being strong-willed, a senior Culture Department source said, a clear reference to the Government's wish that the new chairman stands up to Mark Thompson, the director general.
The source added: “It was felt that at this time the BBC needed strong leadership and someone who has dealt with difficult issues before.”

The Tory peer beat Sir Richard Lambert, the former head of the CBI, and Dame Patricia Hodgson, a long time BBC trustee to the post. He will earn £110,000
Lord Patten’s appointment will not be welcomed by all his fellow Conservatives at Westminster however. He is considered of the left of the party, “a wet,” and too pro-European for many having worked in Brussels as a commissioner.
But Labour also raised questions about the likely appointment.
Ivan Lewis, shadow secretary of culture, media and sport, said: “The test of the new trust chairman - Chris Patton or otherwise - is whether he is willing to stand up for the BBC in the face of instinctive hostility from many Tories including (Jeremy) Hunt and (David) Cameron.
“He will also have to be strong enough to ensure accountability and transparency from BBC executives as crucial decisions are made about the corporation’s future.”
Mr Cameron is likely to announce his backing for Mr Patten next week. Next month, the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee will hold a pre-appointment hearing for Lord Patten and will issue a report. However, it is highly unlikely that the committee would come out against the new chairman.
Lord Patten lost his Commons seat, in Bath, in 1992 despite being credited, as party chairman, with delivering the surprise general election for John Major.
He was rewarded by the former prime minister who appointed him governor of Hong Kong. He was given the task of managing the handover of the colony to China in 1997.
During that period in Hong Kong his aide was Ed Llewellyn, who is now Mr Cameron’s chief of staff and one of his closest advisers. That link is likely to cause concern among some at the BBC who believe the Prime Minister is intent squeezing the corporation hard during his time at No10.
Two years after the Hon Kong handover Lord Patten took over from Leon Brittan as European Commissioner for external relations, serving a full five year term. He was then made a life peer in 2005.
He has been Chancellor of University of Oxford for the past seven years.

[Teddy Bear]

It would appear Damian Thompson at The Telegraph has noted it as well.

I found these two reader comments on the subject to be priceless:
I thought Patten's expertise was handing over successful British institutions to the communists: surely at the BBC that task was accomplished years ago?

and

ust look at this man's track record.... everything he has ever touched - has gone down the pan..... he seems to have a talent for it. Hope he manages to continue this... good work.... with the BBC !

Chris Patten to be new chairman of the BBC Trust? Oh, for God's sake
By Damian Thompson Politics Last updated: February 18th, 2011
424 Comments

Lord Patten of Barnes is very much the BBC’s sort of Tory. Indeed, you pretty much have to work for the BBC or the Guardian to consider that he’s any sort of Tory at all. Now it appears he’s the new chairman of the BBC Trust. What a wretched failure of imagination – and political nerve. News and current affairs will carry on slanting their broadcasts in favour of the European Union and the bien pensant consensus on any subject you care to name, safe in the knowledge that the Trust that regulates them is presided over by… well, let’s just call him a most agreeable supper companion for liberal broadcasters.

[Teddy Bear]

Harry Phibbs in the Daily Mail makes observations about Patten and the BBC that I agree completely with. The only difference if I was writing it would be a few expletives added.

Will Chris Patten be able to rescue the BBC?

By Harry Phibbs
Last updated at 11:59 AM on 4th May 2011

The former Conservative cabinet minister Chris Patten, now Lord Patten, has had a full CV with a mixed record of success.

As Conservative Party Chairman he played a key role in the surprise Tory election victory in 1992 thus thwarting Neil Kinnock from becoming Prime Minister but he lost his own seat and was made Governor of Hong Kong where the handover to colony to Communist China was achieved with safeguards that have proved effective.

Then he became a European Union Commissioner where his accomplishments were to prove rather less tangible.

Now he has become Chairman of the BBC and comes in at a time when public patience is running thin at the Corporation's bloated spending, smug left-wing bias and self indulgent willingness to offend.

'There is no question at all that the BBC must pull its belt in,' Patten said this morning while being interviewed on Radio 4's Today programme.

There must be regard for the concerns of the licence fee payers 'many of whom are feeling skint in the current economic climate', he insisted.

He said the cost of senior managers was already falling by 25 per cent. But he said there will be more 'tough choices' and, in a theme echoing the debate in Town Hall council chambers, the challenge to cut spending without cutting services.

In particular he has rightly emphasised the importance of defending the BBC World Service - although its English language broadcasts were much easier for foreigners to understand before it became engulfed with trendy slang and regional accents.

While the licence fee is remaining frozen at £145.50 it is claimed that there will be a revenue cut of 16 per cent in 'real terms'. Given the gargantuan level of overmanning that is a modest enough saving.

Does Patten's arrival pose a threat to the Guardianista hegemony at the Beeb? I fear not.

In terms of the BBC's editorial stance Patten's appointment is unlikely to improve standards of impartiality. If anything it may make it easier for the BBC to get away with.

They will be able to use a Conservative Chairman to deny they have an anti-Conservative bias when such complaints are submitted. In any case party political bias is the least of the problems.

In a narrow sense the BBC will be scrupulous about matters as getting out a stopwatch to check the amount of air time party leaders are getting during an election campaign. It is on the broader themes that a BBC view is unthinkingly promoted - often a view that Patten would share.

This 'group think' will be all too familiar to the corporation's viewers and listeners, but here are some examples.

The BBC view would include support for our membership of the European Union, opposition to capital punishment and a feeling that sending your children to independent schools rather that state schools is morally wrong (although frequently angst-ridden BBC lefties would break their own rule on this point).

There is a disdain for capitalism and a disdain for the military - both of which come together with anti-Americanism.

There is support for multiculturalism. A belief that overseas aid should be increased.

Peter Sissons has catalogued how any challenge to the 'fact' of climate change is treated as heresy.

Perhaps inevitably, as the BBC thinks the higher the licence fee and the more money they have to spend the better, so they tout an increase in public spending as something to be welcomed. The opposition to the state of Israel is reflected by the way its misconduct gets far more attention than that of Palestinian groups.

An opinion held by a majority of British people on an important subject can be ignored by the BBC - or ridiculed and presented as a fringe view.

While the BBC haven't felt able to attack the monarchy on its regular current affairs output it gives plenty of airtime to left wing 'alternative comedians' to denigrate the institution on assorted quiz shows throwing in obscene references to members of the Royal Family with impunity.

This is defended as 'edgy' - but in reality they have their own safe orthodoxy about those groups who can and can't be subjected to such attacks.

Often this political correctness means not only a failure to achieve impartiality but also to produce decent programmes. Thus yet another repeat of Dad's Army tops the ratings.

Of course we can all still point to particular programmes we enjoy and individual broadcasters we respect. But as an institution the BBC has lost its way.

Freezing the licence fee won't change this - only its abolition. Lord Patten is a capable and decent man but there should be no illusion that his emergence will herald a change of culture or direction.