Thread by @TomLondon6

Just read an interesting article by @OwenBennettJone in Dec 2018 @LRB on the BBC where he worked for many years

Here are some quotes
"Managers, for whom the avoidance of bad publicity is by far the highest priority are so nervous [of the Daily Mail] ..."

1/?

@OwenBennettJone @LRB "Each programme controls its own budget meaning the BBC loses economies of scale. It also means that for BBC journalists the real competition is with each other."

2/?

@OwenBennettJone @LRB "Journalists absorb much of the caution and lack of ambition imbued in them by the prevailing atmosphere."

3/?

@OwenBennettJone @LRB "BBC managers are unsackable...After Newsnight's decision to drop its investigation into Jimmy Savile's child abuse and then not to cover ITV's expose of the case, the editors responsible remained employed while journalists who had tried to publish the story were pushed out"

4/?

@OwenBennettJone @LRB "Does BBC World Service exist to advance UK soft power or to do journalism?... Director General, Tony Hall describes the World Service as one of UK's most important cultural exports and one of our best sources of global influence... Where does that leave the journalism?"

5/?

@OwenBennettJone @LRB "There is plenty of evidence that the BBC, in both its international and domestic manifestations, deserves the epithet "state broadcaster""

6/?

@OwenBennettJone @LRB "For all the talk of how much the BBC values original journalism, it is in fact very nervous of it. The vast bulk of its output merely turns around sanctioned news from officials, corporations and NGOs or curates stories generated by other news organisations."

7/?

@OwenBennettJone @LRB "Until the 1990s MI5, with the BBC's full cooperation and lying denials, monitored the political opinions of its staff. As recently as 2014, BBC's monitoring service was generating material for Intelligence Services, only available to a select group of senior journalists."

8/?

@OwenBennettJone @LRB "Russia Today, Iran's Press TV, Qatar's Al Jazeera and the BBC all reflect the views of the societies from which they emanate...[UK government has plenty of techniques to make sure BBC journalists say what they want them to say]"

9/?

@OwenBennettJone @LRB "As for claim that the BBC is independent of government influence, I have never believed it since [ 2004 interviewed Foreign Sec Jack Straw and got a "scoop" when Straw lost his temper and swore when pressed hard. But BBC management did not use tape and apologised to Straw]

10/?

@OwenBennettJone @LRB "The licence fee creates incentives not to upset those in power or those who might acquire it"

11/?

@OwenBennettJone @LRB "BBC has developed a house style of aggressive interviewing which gives the impression of holding power to account without actually doing so...The presenters seek the truth, but do so in the certain knowledge it won't be forthcoming. The politicians play along, pretending..

12/?

@OwenBennettJone @LRB "BBC still enjoys high levels of public support. That is partly a reflection of the extreme bias in the rest of the media"

13/?

@OwenBennettJone @LRB "BBC can't afford to tell the truth if it means alienating a politician [likely to have power over funding]"

14/?

@OwenBennettJone @LRB "BBC has a guaranteed multi-billion-pound income backed by the criminal justice system."

THE END

The reason I often tweet about the BBC is that I think it has an absolutely vital role in our democracy and in our current crisis.

And I want the BBC to reform and prosper.