Pre-emptive surrender is never a good idea. This week the Times filled its front page with a leaked BBC report about future cutbacks at the Corporation. In an effort to fend off changes imposed by a future Tory government -- changes in no way related, of course, to the Murdoch empire's switch of support from Labour to the Tories -- the BBC is planning cuts of its own. Two radio stations (BBC6 and Asian) will go, and the Corporation's excellent website will be scaled back drastically. Several hundred jobs are to go, which has predictably got the unions in a lather.
The Times's response to the Beeb's self-mutilation was an editorial headed "Big, Bloated and Cunning" (geddit?). Evidently the proposed changes don't go nearly far enough to satisfy the Murdoch agenda. According to The Times, the BBC should go back to focusing on what it does best. Well, let's see. BBC News is much better than Sky News, which has dumbed down dramatically in recent years. The same goes for the two companies' websites. The BBC's independent TV drama productions are much better than Sky's, if only because Sky basically can't be arsed doing anything of that sort. In terms of promoting new music, BBC TV and radio have a proud track record that will be severely compromised if BBC 6 Music is closed; what does Sky do in this field? The only thing I can think of where Sky is better than the BBC is in its football coverage, but that's just because I don't like John Motson.
The BBC costs about as much for a full year as a comprehensive Sky subscription costs for less than three months. It's only reasonable that the BBC should share the burden of the inevitable public sector cost-cutting that lies ahead. But wholesale cuts in order to placate and further enrich a rapacious foreign businessman are something else entirely.
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