Saville McAlpine and the Secret 28

It would have been difficult for anyone to avoid the recent BBC controversies over the Saville cover up or the McAlpine slander.  But there is yet more that the BBC wishes to keep from your eyes.

This latest secrecy revolves around a 2006 editorial decision the BBC once bragged about in an in-house report. It is sadly just another shocking indictment of the arrogance of the BBC.
The 2006 editorial decision concerned removing the concept of even handedness on the reportage of climate change. The BBC declared that this decision was arrived at after consulting 28 "leading experts". However the BBC was rather coy about who exactly these "experts" were. Since then it has point blank refused provide any more information.

Climate Change, as you may have surmised, is one of the most important debates in living history. To remove the basic concept of even handedness from such a debate MUST have a verifiable and clear reasoning behind it. Instead the BBC is silent and is willing to go to court and spend a huge amount of licence payers money defending its position from a freedom of information request. (See Here) All this to simply defy a Welsh pensioner and his wife who wanted to know who these "experts" were.

You have to ask: What exactly does the BBC have to hide?

For obvious reasons, those who are not convinced by the climate change argument are smelling a rat and I don't blame them.

The only way people can be educated as to the effects of mass pollution is to allow the questions, however heretical, and allow fair dissent to the current mantra, even if that dissent contradicts current scientific knowledge.

Science, let alone democracy, is never served by denying debate. This current secretive BBC stance reduces their coverage of climate change to mere propaganda. Which is much more than a shame.

The uncaring, high handed and self serving ethos that IS the BBC has shown via the Saville affair, that children were and probably still are, unsafe in the hands of the BBC.

Similarly their bizarre trial by innuendo and deceit of a leading Tory shows that individuals cannot expect fair dealing from the BBC (I wonder how many lesser persons, without McAlpines resources have been ruined over the years by similar "investigations")

Now finally we have via the "Secret 28" the sordid display of the BBC apparently suppressing debate and taking a partisan position. Without any justification other than "Trust us - we are the BBC".

As every day passes, this self serving elitist bureaucracy get ever more corrupt, ever more divorced from the people who pay for it's excess.

With this latest, and so far low profile outrage, the BBC is seeking to hide from us the identity of those who helped it arrive at one of the most important editorial decisions of the last 50 years.

Such an arrogant secretive stance reveals the BBC as the enemy of fair scientific debate,  and so then, as the enemy of democracy itself.

This monster must be brought to heel.

BBC to get even more money.

Companies are working short time and trying to survive.
People are having their wages frozen or even cut.
Front line services are going to have to live within their means.
The government is trying to cut £6 billion out of the overspend.
Even cabinet ministers have taken a 5% pay cut.

Yet the bloody BBC gets the OK to increase the licence fee. (see here) . No doubt they haven't got enough champagne or caviar in the cellar to keep the glitterati happy.

Really.
Honest to God.
What the hell is going on?.

When is anybody ever going to have the guts to stand up to these self serving elitist bastards in the BBC?

Oh Joy! BBC to get a kicking

Dear readers, you may have noticed that Billothewisp is hardly a fan of the that self serving corporate monster that many endearingly refer to as “The Beeb”

“The Beeb”.

Sounds nice doesn't it?

A little homely. Cuddly even.

A bit like referring to a Stalin as Uncle Joe or Kim Jong II as the Dear Leader.

It makes them sound, well, Oh so nice.

The ugly truth is that the BBC acts very much like a state within a state. It has its own tax raising power through the laughably outdated TV licence. It protects its patch with any weapon that comes to hand and it has not been slow on bending politics to its own will if need be (see this piece by Daniel Hannan)

Surely a public service broadcaster should be restricted to the same powers and controls as any other public service. But when have you ever come across say, the judiciary raising their own special tax?

Which other branch of the Civil Service pays £4.6 million to its top nine executives? What public service pays £834000 to its Chief Executive? That is the pay by the way. God knows what are the pension rights/severance pay/terminal bonus/pat-in-lieu etc. etc.

This thing is a monster and like all ugly self serving monoliths it threatens our very democracy.

So Billothewisp was very pleased to see this article which indicates that these self serving fat cats Civil Servants are going to be brought to heel.

I hope it is true.

I expect the BBC will whine bitch and threaten. I expect that there will attempts at intimidation and blackmail to prevent any curtailment of their privileged position.

We should expect various irrelevant revelations “In the National Interest” about who is sleeping with who etc. etc. especially concerning those trying to control the monster.

The BBC establishment must be faced down and the whole thing reformed.

Or we will all continue to be the losers, while paying for the champagne lifestyles of the self serving unaccountable elite that is the BBC.

Fishy Economics at the BBC

So our grossly underpaid director general (£800K per annum) has announced savings of £600 million at the BBC. To achieve a saving which amounts to 20% of the BBC's annual poll tax income, two virtually unknown radio stations are to go. Half of the content of the BBC website is also to go.

I don't know if I am just confused by high finance but really, this does not sound like real cuts of £600 million to me.

Could it be that our magnificent BBC establishment are pulling the wool over our eyes?

The DG also proudly announced that 90p out of every pound will go to “content”.

A cynical little voice in my head makes me inquire as to whether this could be achieved by giving a few hidden pay rises to the already grossly overpaid luvvies.

Think about it.

The more it costs to produce “content” the less as a percentage is the cost of buildings and infrastructure. Hence by having a few more of the cognoscenti on £200K will soon make the BBC more "efficient".

To me, the whole dark self serving edifice of the BBC stinks of corruption. This cost cutting is just a devious little ruse to deflect criticism about the disgusting rises in the licence fee during a time of national crisis.

BBC Thief and Destroyer

I may be getting old and grey. But I still love artistic and technical innovation. Likewise I am always going to hate bloated corporate theft.

You may remember an earlier post praising the innovative radio station “Amazing Radio” Post Here

This small station only broadcasts unsigned musicians. The radio station is innovative and fresh, and so are the artists and the presenters. As with all things, some will be to your taste, other less so. That's what comes from innovation. It is a breathtakingly new approach. Especially when compared to the morally and artistically bankrupt self serving monoculture presented by the BBC.

You can find Amazing Radio on-line Here and also on DAB radio.

Now the ugly BBC has tried to steal the idea. (Guardian article here) This threatens the viability of Amazing radio.

This is not the first time this has happened.

In the broadcasting industry many small production companies have seen their niche overwhelmed by an intrusion by the BBC. The small companies have to make a profit. The BBC has money to burn. This arrogance has, at times, been so outrageous that even the supine BBC Trust has had to haul in the BBC. Although when it suites the BBC, the BBC Trust has simply been ignored. (see Guardian here)

The BBC was set up as a public service. But instead it now acts like the ugliest of corporate companies. It can snuff out any competitors by simply using its huge resources to destroy the competitors financial viability. It wealds massive political and economic control over our nation, where it should have none.

This ugly self serving monster must have its wings clipped. It is laughable to regard this demon as a public service. It is no longer under any form of impartial control and is acting like a state within a state.

The BBC is clearly an enemy of innovative companies like Amazing Radio. But today the mere presence of the BBC is now a major disincentive to new innovative production companies considering setting up in this country. They do not want to risk having their ideas poached by the monster in the wings.

It has now reached such a point that the self serving arrogance of the BBC, backed by its own compulsory poll tax, not only threatens independent innovation but threatens fair and diverse debate as well.

Today the BBC can only be regarded as an enemy of innovation and possibly of democracy itself.

It must be brought to account.

The BBC Licence Fee and Injustice

The other night a BBC presenter was interviewing one of the three Labour Party crooks who have been charged with false accounting. He retaliated to her questioning by asking how much she earned. The lady grandly announced that she earned a sum in excess of £90,000.

She was not a particularly well known presenter.

We hear today Here that nearly 400 BBC employees are being paid in excess of 100,000 a year. Of these, 58 earn more than the Prime Minister (£196,000). Of course all of these individuals will be on what can only be described as excellent pension, sickness and holiday allowances. Don't forget this is nothing to do with the so called “talent” who are paid even more.

While this may be shocking, excessive pay is not the problem with the BBC. It is simply one of the symptoms of a much more serious malaise.

Each year the BBC is guaranteed £3.8 billion to spend roughly how it likes. As we all know, most of this money is raised by what amounts to a poll tax on televisions. A single mum living in a bedsit pays the same a multi-millionaire.

The BBC aggressively and proudly defends what it declares is its independence. I would argue that what the BBC actually defends is its own position. If anything threatens their cosy guaranteed tax income they will pour on the pressure and vilification until the threat is removed. Everything they do is subservient to this.

Long ago the BBC ceased to have a real objective viewpoint. Today everything is tailored to ensure it can maintain its own power base and maximise its already bloated income. It's news reporting is only as objective as serves its purpose. It is out of control, self serving and threatens our democracy. The BBC has become a monster.

But it would have to be a very brave government who took on this state within a state. Today the BBC is capable of breaking any government that threatens its position. It is in an almost unassailable position. They have the ability and ruthlessness to manipulate any presentation of the truth so that it comes out in the BBC's favour.

I do not know how the BBC can be brought to heel. I only hope that as time goes by, the already obsolete and corrupt licence fee will become more and more unacceptable. Then perhaps something will have to be done.

Really, if we are to have a any form of public service it should be funded centrally by direct and fair taxation by the democratically elected Government.

Allowing the unelected and unrepresentative BBC to raise its own grubby poll tax in order to fund its excesses is frankly an outrage against our society.