At last! MPs have finally confirmed that they want very radical changes in the way the BBC is run, including the decriminalisation and eventual axing of the totally anachronistic – and hated – licence fee. At the heart of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s 166-page report is a key recommendation: that the Trustees – the rotten …
Hall’s BBC Executive Board Climate Change Links
Rona Fairhead, who David Cameron has parachuted in as new chairman of the BBC, is being grilled about her approach to the role by the Commons Culture and Sport Committee on Tuesday – and already questions of conflict of interest are being asked. A former chief executive of the Financial Times group, she still owns a tranche of shares in …
Bland Leading the Bland
Sir Christopher Bland, who chaired the BBC from 1996-2001 – when the hated John ’dalek’ Birt was director general – has waded into the discussion about who should become new Chairman of the BBC trustees. . According to the Guardian, he suggests that the current problem in finding a successor to Lord Patten, who was forced to resign as chairman …
Hall’s BBC Executive Board Climate Change Links
Rona Fairhead, who David Cameron has parachuted in as new chairman of the BBC, is being grilled about her approach to the role by the Commons Culture and Sport Committee on Tuesday – and already questions of conflict of interest are being asked. A former chief executive of the Financial Times group, she still owns a tranche of shares in …
BBC Trustees Cement ‘climate change’ Prejudice
The just-published BBC Trust Review of impartiality and accuracy of the BBC’s coverage of science: follow up is an extraordinary, document which I think is virtually unprecedented in terms of partisanship in the broadcast arena. The BBC Trustees have reinforced with steely belligerence against those who dare to disagree, their 2012 ruling that, in effect, the debate about climate change …
BBC Prebble report into EU coverage ‘not worth paper it is written on’
News-watch has written a paper for Civitas, the respected think-tank, that shows that the Prebble report into the BBC’s EU coverage ‘is not worth the paper it is written on’ and was not independent. The Times says that the Civitas paper demonstrates that ‘the clean bill of health for the BBC (given for the EU coverage by Prebble) “raises serious questions” about …
DYKE: ‘BBC should be regulated by OFCOM’
Photo by varresa The vultures are circling increasingly around Lord Patten, who has been savaged – and is still under fire – for his handling of a series of problems, including the Savile inquiry and the House of Commons’ prolonged investigation into excessive pay-offs to senior executives. Latest to join in the attack on the BBC chairman is Greg Dyke, the former …
BBC Trust ‘Failed a Primary Duty’
The Commons public accounts committee has questioned whether the BBC’s governance model is fit for purpose in a damning indictment of its handling of severance payments to 150 senior managers. The committee’s chairman, Margaret Hodge, said its investigations into the pay offs – which included cross-examination of BBC chairman Lord Patten and director general Lord Hall – had uncovered a culture of cronyism …
BBC Chairman ‘disgracefully’ stonewalls EU Scrutiny Committee
BBC Chairman Lord Patten has refused to give evidence to the Commons European Scrutiny Committee about the BBC’s coverage of EU affairs. His refusal follows an earlier Scrutiny Committee hearing in which Newswatch gave evidence that the BBC was failing in its Charter duty to report EU affairs to an extent that allowed audiences to understand properly the issues involved. Scrutiny Committee chairman …
A decision by BBC Trustees to reject a complaint about the BBC’s EU coverage was a ‘farce’
A decision by BBC Trustees to reject a complaint about the BBC’s EU coverage was a ‘farce’, leading Eurosceptic MPs Kate Hoey and Philip Hollobone have said. The complaint – based on research by Newswatch – centred on an edition of Newsnight last January which covered David Cameron’s decision to announce a radical overhaul of EU policy to include a referendum …