Why are people so anti the BBC?

I really don’t get the licence fee. It is supposed to be a public station. Personally I would never pay it.

While acknowledging the shameful behaviour of certain people in the BBC in the Bashir/Diana affair, nevertheless I hope the BBC survives,- and hopefully learns lessons from this. It's always been there in the background of my life, from listening to the crackling old radio during WW2, to the many brilliant programmes I have enjoyed over the years, and I consider that its good far outweighs any bad.
Lord Reith said that the BBC was to "Inform, educate and entertain" and I think it has done that, for the most part, extremely well. Long live the BBC.

Esspee

I can now see through their agenda and am horrified that a channel I used to assume gave honest news has descended so low. Even their documentaries no longer give a balanced view.

If you can’t see it you are being brainwashed.

?

Can someone please explain the BBC's agenda for us poor, benighted and brainwashed folks?

There seems to be differing opinion about the bbc being left or right leaning, in which case its probably balanced. We don't know how lucky we are.

Most newspapers tend to the right, there is little complaint so they carry on doing their 'thing'.

I’m another brainwashed creature who has failed to understand the biased agenda of a whole broadcasting corporation.

I like the BBC’s diversity, and the fact that it is not in the thrall of advertisers who can threaten to withdraw if their interests are not presented in a good way.

I like that it is not owned by a ‘media mogul’ who can push an agenda in news, documentaries or even drama.

I like that it is independent of other news sources, and not part of an empire of what seem to be separate outlets (newspapers, tv channels and so on).

I do think that this government has it in its sights, though, and that we need to be very alert to threats to move towards government control of a corporation that has been the envy of the world for its independence.

nanna8

I really don’t get the licence fee. It is supposed to be a public station. Personally I would never pay it.

What do you think is worth paying for?

Esspee

I can now see through their agenda and am horrified that a channel I used to assume gave honest news has descended so low. Even their documentaries no longer give a balanced view.

If you can’t see it you are being brainwashed.

Please give one or two examples of documentaries that do not give a balanced view.

In answer to those who criticise the BBC for being biased I would refer you to the Daily Politics. They always have a representative from both main parties and political commentators from right and left. They tried very hard to maintain a balance during the run up to 31 December last year so that we had to sit through the likes of Mark Francois, Isabel Oakshott, Richard Tyce and Tim Martin on several occasions.

Katie59

Because they have a very liberal agenda, concentrating on one topic ad nauseum, doing that removes any balance by excluding other events in the time frame.

I don’t understand this ? A very liberal agenda ?

The BBC produces many programmes that I like, particularly BBC 4, but for news, I do a round up of Sky, BBC, Aljazeera and RT. This gives not a balanced viewpoint maybe but very different topics of importance. Akin to taking three newspapers, one right wing, one left wing and one in the middle,
Heaven preserve us from something akin to Fox News.

I object to the fact that if I have a TV that is capable of receiving ANY live TV, then I am charged for a TV licence even though the Beeb gets ALL of the licence money and I might never watch the bbc or want to. If they are so wonderful then why don't they stand or fall by how wonderful they are like every other TV channel does?

Doodledog
I’m yet another brainwashed creature who has failed to understand the biased agenda of a whole broadcasting corporation” That fits me too.?
I sometimes feel the news is biased one way or another, but that doesn’t apply to everything. I didn’t want to quote the whole of your post, but it’s very well put.

greenlady102

I object to the fact that if I have a TV that is capable of receiving ANY live TV, then I am charged for a TV licence even though the Beeb gets ALL of the licence money and I might never watch the bbc or want to. If they are so wonderful then why don't they stand or fall by how wonderful they are like every other TV channel does?

Because every other channel is paid for by advertising. I for one get very fed up with the advert breaks. Especially as the adverts are mostly rubbish. There's very few award winners in the current advertising. I like the new Warburtons. Stylish photography plus George Clooney.

For all its faults the BBC is still an institution of which we can be proud.

So many programmes are sold around the world and it really is a force of 'soft power' for the UK.

It's respected in much of the world and people in far-flung parts rely on the World Service for impartial news.

Thank you to all who continue to support the BBC. I have to confess that I have been getting increasingly angry with those who don't appear to watch it but still have an opinion.

Dinahmo

greenlady102

I object to the fact that if I have a TV that is capable of receiving ANY live TV, then I am charged for a TV licence even though the Beeb gets ALL of the licence money and I might never watch the bbc or want to. If they are so wonderful then why don't they stand or fall by how wonderful they are like every other TV channel does?

Because every other channel is paid for by advertising. I for one get very fed up with the advert breaks. Especially as the adverts are mostly rubbish. There's very few award winners in the current advertising. I like the new Warburtons. Stylish photography plus George Clooney.

I'd prefer ads that I can skip rather than an enforced payment.

Dinahmo

greenlady102

I object to the fact that if I have a TV that is capable of receiving ANY live TV, then I am charged for a TV licence even though the Beeb gets ALL of the licence money and I might never watch the bbc or want to. If they are so wonderful then why don't they stand or fall by how wonderful they are like every other TV channel does?

Because every other channel is paid for by advertising. I for one get very fed up with the advert breaks. Especially as the adverts are mostly rubbish. There's very few award winners in the current advertising. I like the new Warburtons. Stylish photography plus George Clooney.

I forgot something.....I have no problem with a subscribed beeb I wouldn't even have (much) of a problem if the annual subscription was the same cost as the licence (although I don't see why it should be) I do mind that I can't watch ANY OTHER channel without paying the beeb

Thank you adaunas ?

greenlady102 The trouble with ads is that they pay for the channel, so if an advertiser is annoyed with a programme and pulls out, the channel can lose a lot of money.

This wouldn't matter too much if it were one product not being advertised, but conglomerates have a lot of advertising power - google Nestle, Diageo or Proctor and Gamble as just three examples of giant conglomerates who have vast numbers of products in their respective stables. Suppose one of them produced a product that was harmful to children, or there was a scandal about how they treated their workers in a third world country. A news outlet that was reliant on their advertising revenue would have to think twice about exposing it.

The BBC, because it has no advertisers, is independent of that sort of pressure, and that can only be for the best, IMO.

Have you watched TV in countries that have just commercial stations. They are dire. You may not like all the BBC produces but they cannot please everyone.
I listen to the radio night and day and often shout at the oh so rude interviewers on the ‘Today’ programme but would not be without it. I also listen to other stations but because they are funded by advertising a lot of the content is cheap phone ins. We get variety with the Beeb as it is not solely based on audience figures

Gin

Have you watched TV in countries that have just commercial stations. They are dire. You may not like all the BBC produces but they cannot please everyone.
I listen to the radio night and day and often shout at the oh so rude interviewers on the ‘Today’ programme but would not be without it. I also listen to other stations but because they are funded by advertising a lot of the content is cheap phone ins. We get variety with the Beeb as it is not solely based on audience figures

yes I have, I lived in the USA for 2 years. Didn't find the TV dire at all.....and people could still pay for it if they want it.

I see the BBC as having a liberal social agenda- supporting equal treatment of minority groups, for instance, and this is one reason that the right wingers accuse it of being left wing.

On the other hand its political agenda, both in the leanings of its political commentators like Andrew Neil, and in its relentless promotion of Farage which eventually led to brexit, are markedly right wing.

Although its charter calls for impartiality, this has led to the nonsense of "balancing" every reasonable well informed expert on any issue with a crackpot contradicting him. So the authoratative speakers explaining the reasons for remaining in the EU were "balanced" by the likes of Nigel Lawson and no discussion on climate change is complete without a climate change denier.

This misinterpretation of "balanced discussion" has seriously undermined the reputation of the BBC, but I would hate to see it go.

The BBC should be renamed the 'Biased and Biased and Control' channel.