Post by Teddy Bear on Nov 8, 2013 19:09:23 GMT
Considering that this man, Roger Mosey, worked for the BBC for most of his adult life, well over 30 years, while he doesn't go as far as to say the BBC licence fee should be terminated, but he does advise that it should certainly be cut down, and shared with others.
He also provides a glimpse into the BBC workings and mindset.
He also provides a glimpse into the BBC workings and mindset.
BBC is too big, too left-wing and ignored critics of immigration and Brussels, former head of news admits
By Matt Chorley
The BBC is too big and too left wing and should lose some of its licence fee, the Corporation’s former head of TV news has warned.
Roger Mosey claimed the BBC had wrongly kept critics of Brussels, benefits and immigration off the airwaves and veered to the left on many issues.
He said it would ‘enrich the nation’ if rival commercial broadcasters had access to some of the licence fee to take on the BBC’s dominance.
There has been growing pressure on the BBC over the £145.50, with 70 per cent of viewers saying they want it cut or abolished.
Tory ministers have warned it could be cut or opened up to other broadcasters if the BBC cannot repair the damage to its reputation caused by the Savile abuse scandal and huge pay-offs to senior managers.
Mr Mosey, who was head of BBC Television News and oversaw the BBC’s coverage of the London Olympics, said there should be a debate about how the next licence fee settlement ‘helps pluralism and diversity’.
Writing in The Times, Mr Mosey said that while the corporation faced widespread competition in network television, its market share of 70 per cent of all news consumption on both TV and radio was something that ‘even long-term loyalists find uncomfortable’.
He suggested that while the BBC's stance of co-ordinating its editorial content across the organisation was a good thing, it can ‘lead to homogeneity’ and conformity.
Mr Mosey said: "On the BBC's own admission, in recent years it did not, with the virtue of hindsight, give enough space to anti-immigration views or to EU-withdrawalists; and, though he may have exaggerated, the former Director-General Mark Thompson spoke of a 'massive bias to the left' in the BBC he joined more than 30 years ago.
‘I share Mark's view that there was more internal political diversity in recent times, but that isn't enough unless it's evident in a wider range of editorial view on air.’
Editors’ views are ‘influenced by like-minded peers’ and co-ordination of policies across programmes can lead to homogeneity, he warned.
‘That can be intensified by regulation that sees there being “right” and “wrong” answers.
‘The BBC Trust speaks the language of diversity but in its edicts it promotes conformity, whether it’s about an agreed approach to the science of climate change, “correct” terminology in the Middle East or the way a documentary about benefits should be constructed.’
Mr Mosey said this was not an argument to take a ‘wrecking ball’ to the corporation, but to examine how the licence fee can bring about diversity in broadcasting.
He pointed to a past attempt by Channel 4 to launch a radio service to rival the BBC.
‘If that couldn't work as a commercial enterprise, might it enrich the nation if similar bids were open to funding by the licence fee?
‘A properly resourced service independent of the BBC could provide bracing competition and increase choice for audiences.’
He called for the BBC to still have the ‘dominant slice of the licence-fee pie’, but added: ‘The hard question for the corporation is why in a digital age it should have the whole pie to itself forever - when doing something different might be better for the public good.’
This week BBC Director General Lord Hall warned the BBC must end its big spending culture and return to the low-pay era of Morecambe and Wise.
He said staff had to get used to the idea of spending the licence fee money ‘as if it were our own’ and not an endless supply of cash.
He said BBC employees also had to remember their job was to provide programmes which could not be found anywhere else.
It is thought stars like Graham Norton and Gary Lineker both earn about £1.5million a year at the BBC.
But Lord Hall called for a return to the culture of the 1970s and 1980s, when the BBC had a reputation for being tight with money and paying in ‘small cheques’.
Speaking at the CBI annual conference in London, he said: ‘We are owned by householders who pay the licence fee in this country and we have got to remember that every time we spend money.
‘There was a Morecambe and Wise sketch on quite regularly in the 70s and 80s on the BBC, where Wise would say to Morecambe “Nice suit”.
‘And Morecambe would say to Wise “It’s a BBC suit - small check”. It still works.'
- Roger Mosey said more of the licence fee should be open to rivals
- BBC has 70% market share for news, squeezing out alternatives
Corporation-wide policies create the 'right' and 'wrong' way to cover issues
By Matt Chorley
The BBC is too big and too left wing and should lose some of its licence fee, the Corporation’s former head of TV news has warned.
Roger Mosey claimed the BBC had wrongly kept critics of Brussels, benefits and immigration off the airwaves and veered to the left on many issues.
He said it would ‘enrich the nation’ if rival commercial broadcasters had access to some of the licence fee to take on the BBC’s dominance.
There has been growing pressure on the BBC over the £145.50, with 70 per cent of viewers saying they want it cut or abolished.
Tory ministers have warned it could be cut or opened up to other broadcasters if the BBC cannot repair the damage to its reputation caused by the Savile abuse scandal and huge pay-offs to senior managers.
Mr Mosey, who was head of BBC Television News and oversaw the BBC’s coverage of the London Olympics, said there should be a debate about how the next licence fee settlement ‘helps pluralism and diversity’.
Writing in The Times, Mr Mosey said that while the corporation faced widespread competition in network television, its market share of 70 per cent of all news consumption on both TV and radio was something that ‘even long-term loyalists find uncomfortable’.
He suggested that while the BBC's stance of co-ordinating its editorial content across the organisation was a good thing, it can ‘lead to homogeneity’ and conformity.
Mr Mosey said: "On the BBC's own admission, in recent years it did not, with the virtue of hindsight, give enough space to anti-immigration views or to EU-withdrawalists; and, though he may have exaggerated, the former Director-General Mark Thompson spoke of a 'massive bias to the left' in the BBC he joined more than 30 years ago.
‘I share Mark's view that there was more internal political diversity in recent times, but that isn't enough unless it's evident in a wider range of editorial view on air.’
Editors’ views are ‘influenced by like-minded peers’ and co-ordination of policies across programmes can lead to homogeneity, he warned.
‘That can be intensified by regulation that sees there being “right” and “wrong” answers.
‘The BBC Trust speaks the language of diversity but in its edicts it promotes conformity, whether it’s about an agreed approach to the science of climate change, “correct” terminology in the Middle East or the way a documentary about benefits should be constructed.’
Mr Mosey said this was not an argument to take a ‘wrecking ball’ to the corporation, but to examine how the licence fee can bring about diversity in broadcasting.
He pointed to a past attempt by Channel 4 to launch a radio service to rival the BBC.
‘If that couldn't work as a commercial enterprise, might it enrich the nation if similar bids were open to funding by the licence fee?
‘A properly resourced service independent of the BBC could provide bracing competition and increase choice for audiences.’
He called for the BBC to still have the ‘dominant slice of the licence-fee pie’, but added: ‘The hard question for the corporation is why in a digital age it should have the whole pie to itself forever - when doing something different might be better for the public good.’
This week BBC Director General Lord Hall warned the BBC must end its big spending culture and return to the low-pay era of Morecambe and Wise.
He said staff had to get used to the idea of spending the licence fee money ‘as if it were our own’ and not an endless supply of cash.
He said BBC employees also had to remember their job was to provide programmes which could not be found anywhere else.
It is thought stars like Graham Norton and Gary Lineker both earn about £1.5million a year at the BBC.
But Lord Hall called for a return to the culture of the 1970s and 1980s, when the BBC had a reputation for being tight with money and paying in ‘small cheques’.
Speaking at the CBI annual conference in London, he said: ‘We are owned by householders who pay the licence fee in this country and we have got to remember that every time we spend money.
‘There was a Morecambe and Wise sketch on quite regularly in the 70s and 80s on the BBC, where Wise would say to Morecambe “Nice suit”.
‘And Morecambe would say to Wise “It’s a BBC suit - small check”. It still works.'
, and has to continue like never before so that your weak-kneed Tories finally make the move, along with UKIP of which I'll compare to our Tea Party (fogive me 
).