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Murdoch: unchecked BBC expansion is 'chilling'

Laila

Laila

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An out-of-control BBC and addiction to central planning by regulators are damaging democracy and media choice in Britain, James Murdoch said in Edinburgh last night.

Giving the annual MacTaggart lecture to an audience of television executives, Mr Murdoch, 36, the son of Rupert Murdoch, called for a “dramatic reduction of the activities of the State” in broadcasting, arguing that it effectively treated viewers like children.

He contrasted the prevailing political attitude to mainstream broadcasting with the lightly regulated newspaper, film or book industry where consumer choice predominates.

Mr Murdoch, chief executive of the European and Asian operations of News Corporation, parent company of The Times, said: “In the regulated world of public service broadcasting, the customer does not exist: he or she is a passive creature — a viewer in need of protection.
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No doubt the BBC celebrates the fact that it now has well over half of all radio listening. But the consequent impoverishment of the once-successful commercial sector is testament to the corporation’s inability to distinguish between what is good for it and what is good for the country.”

Mr Murdoch’s lecture comes 20 years after his father, the chief executive of News Corp, made a wide-ranging attack on the BBC and the British television establishment.
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James Murdoch: unchecked BBC expansion is 'chilling' - Times Online

Hah.
This from a family who own how much of our media? All about choice i can see Murdoch :rolleyes:

I like the BBC. Long may it live ... and continue providing me with Mock the week :2wave:
 
Hatuey said:
I actually like the BBC. They have some of the best documentaries. I'm usually listening to one as I work. Murdoch is just mad British viewers prefer education over tabloid news.
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I personally think BBC is good value for money, even with my license tax on it.
I enjoy the majority of their shows (Torchwood, Dr Who, HIGNFY etc.), radio shows and also their documentaries and political shows.
BBC is the absolute best for politics and documentaries imo. Closely followed by channel 4

But why are we surprised by Murdoch? He is a hypocrite anyway. If he really wishes for competition. How about sell off some of the news he owns?
This is the same person who wants to do away with the 'impartiality' requirements of the UK news (Meaning they cannot take a hard 'right' or 'left' bias stance and must produce facts)
 
Laila said:
I personally think BBC is good value for money, even with my license tax on it.
I enjoy the majority of their shows (Torchwood, Dr Who, HIGNFY etc.), radio shows and also their documentaries and political shows.
BBC is the absolute best for politics and documentaries imo. Closely followed by channel 4

But why are we surprised by Murdoch? He is a hypocrite anyway. If he really wishes for competition. How about sell off some of the news he owns?
This is the same person who wants to do away with the 'impartiality' requirements of the UK news (Meaning they cannot take a hard 'right' or 'left' bias stance and must produce facts)
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It would be far more worth the money if Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand screwed up more often.
 
I like some of BBC programing a lot even if I have misgivings about its size and how it is funded. On the one hand I can't stand ads but on the other I'm a bit put off by how it is funded, particularly because it does have a subtle but constant culturally liberal agenda, as the likes of Andrew Marr have admitted.

Bottom line I like and I'd like to keep it but I'd like to see a bit more balance. How about some programs celebrating traditional values for once instead of simply social liberalism.
 
Wessexman said:
I like some of BBC programing a lot even if I have misgivings about its size and how it is funded. On the one hand I can't stand ads but on the other I'm a bit put off by how it is funded, particularly because it does have a subtle but constant culturally liberal agenda, as the likes of Andrew Marr have admitted.

Bottom line I like and I'd like to keep it but I'd like to see a bit more balance. How about some programs celebrating traditional values for once instead of simply social liberalism.
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I'm not sure how you see the BBC in over in Britain but do you watch many documentaries on it? There are usually quite a few on British history. I've seen at least 5-6 on English royalty and the landscape of the Kingdom. What exactly do you mean by traditional values?
 
kaya'08 said:
It would be far more worth the money if Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand screwed up more often.
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Hate them two. I was one of those grumpy old ladies who complained :mrgreen:
BBC made a big mistake with those two.

They need to get in touch with Lord Reith's declaration that BBC was there to inform, educate and entertain. Entertain being last. They seem to be putting it first with assholes like Brand on my TV
 
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Wessexman said:
Bottom line I like and I'd like to keep it but I'd like to see a bit more balance. How about some programs celebrating traditional values for once instead of simply social liberalism.
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What type of 'traditional' shows do you mean?
No offense Wessex but if it is some boring hour long show on the history of some church or something. I'm switching over to Big Brother which i will no doubt enjoy more :2sick1:
 
Hatuey said:
I'm not sure how you see the BBC in over in Britain but do you watch many documentaries on it? There are usually quite a few on British history. I've seen at least 5-6 on English royalty and the landscape of the Kingdom. What exactly do you mean by traditional values?
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They rarely do this from a traditional standpoint. I just watched Tony Robinson's one on Crime and Punishment and he seemed to consider the tyrant and regicide Cromwell a hero.

By traditional values I mean things like how marriage and the traditional family are a positive thing, support for Christianity and the CoE, support for traditional hierarchies and authority, support for other traditions of England as opposed to multiculturalism. You know pretty much have at least some shows that put across a traditionalist or social conservative viewpoint as opposed to social liberal agenda, even if it is subtle.

I'm not saying the BBC only show this kind of thing but simply a bit of it after all conservatives are still sizable enough in Britain.

For example as well as of having Dawn French in The Vicar of Dibley announce her next fight is for gay clergy have some one else defend the church's wish to keep to its traditional teaching.
 
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Laila said:
What type of 'traditional' shows do you mean?
No offense Wessex but if it is some boring hour long show on the history of some church or something. I'm switching over to Big Brother which i will no doubt enjoy more :2sick1:
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Some of it would be boring to some people. I find BB intensely boring:2razz:

In some ways I'd just love some more subtle approachs like instead of every drama seeming to subtly embrace a permissive, social liberal agedna why can't some of them subtly back a more social conservative one.
 
Wessexman said:
Some of it would be boring to some people. I find BB intensely boring:2razz:

In some ways I'd just love some more subtle approachs like instead of every drama seeming to subtly embrace a permissive, social liberal agedna why can't some of them subtly back a more social conservative one.
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I find BB boring but i doubt as much of some of the things you have in mind tbh lol

I do enjoy The Big Questions. Usually has some rep from COE saying their view on controversial issues.

Fair enough, write in and complain? =P
The Conservative party would love to get their claws on BBC or Guardian lol
 
Laila said:
I find BB boring but i doubt as much of some of the things you have in mind tbh lol

I do enjoy The Big Questions. Usually has some rep from COE saying their view on controversial issues.

Fair enough, write in and complain? =P
The Conservative party would love to get their claws on BBC or Guardian lol
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I don't mean the Tories so much as just social conservatism. I'm as worried or more so about the more subtle influence of non-political programming on the nation. The constant but subtle social liberal agenda in most drama, soap opera, comedy shows and such.

This is why I for one think the likes of O'Reilly and Fox in the US are no match for Hollywood. The kind of subtle social liberalism they put out is far more insidious and far more influential because of this.
 
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Wessexman said:
I don't mean the Tories so much as just social conservatism. I'm as worried or more so about the more subtle influence of non-political programming on the nation. The constant but subtle social liberal agenda in most drama, soap opera, comedy shows and such.
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What liberal agenda?
Its entertainment

How entertaining is conservatism? I mean, honestly.
What can you joke about? Family values? Go to Church? I think not.
 
I like Graham Norton when I get the chance to watch him on BBC America. Jonathon Ross too. They completely destroy American late night talk shows.
 
Laila said:
What liberal agenda?
Its entertainment
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On come on. Social liberalism is quite common. Even you must see this. The Vicar of Dibley incident I mentioned above being an obvious example.

How entertaining is conservatism? I mean, honestly.
What can you joke about? Family values? Go to Church? I think not.
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Ever read Shakespeare?
 
Wessexman said:
On come on. Social liberalism is quite common. Even you must see this.

Ever read Shakespeare?
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Sex you mean?

What kind of question is that?
Ofc we did.

As hard as some may find it. We did learn about it in school and college.
Infact it was compulsory.
 
RightOfCenter said:
I like Graham Norton when I get the chance to watch him on BBC America. Jonathon Ross too. They completely destroy American late night talk shows.
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Take them. They are yours to keep.
Present from UK to US.

I will send them to US free of charge*



*Has a no return policy
 
Laila said:
Sex you mean?
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Yes, but I also mean the values put out. The ideas of equality and multiculturalism and contempt for traditional social structures and authorities.

What kind of question is that?
Ofc we did.

As hard as some may find it. We did learn about it in school and college.
Infact it was compulsory.
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Shakespeare was socially conservative in many ways and yet extremely entertaining.

O, when degree is shaked,
Which is the ladder to all high designs,
Then enterprise is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores
And make a sop of all this solid globe:
Strength should be lord of imbecility,
And the rude son should strike his father dead:
Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong,
Between whose endless jar justice resides,
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an universal wolf,
 
Laila said:
Take them. They are yours to keep.
Present from UK to US.

I will send them to US free of charge*



*Has a no return policy
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Well, Norton did have a show on Comedy Central for awhile. Didn't catch on. How come you don't like them? Did they do something particularly offensive or is just not your style?
 
Wessexman said:
Yes, but I also mean the values put out. The ideas of equality and multiculturalism and contempt for traditional social structures and authorities.

Shakespeare was socially conservative in many ways and yet extremely entertaining.
[/I]
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What is wrong with equality?

Shakespeare is different

Face it. Social conservatism is not entertaining and it is not popular amongst the youth nor would it pull in audiences.
 
RightOfCenter said:
Well, Norton did have a show on Comedy Central for awhile. Didn't catch on. How come you don't like them? Did they do something particularly offensive or is just not your style?
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You all saved yourself alot of pain.

Don't get me started on Ross. I have complained about him many times
What a little tosser, rude, not funny and a waste of my license fee.
I wouldn't pay a penny for him. I'd rather have a homeless person dancing drunk than him on my screen or radio.
 
Laila said:
What is wrong with equality?
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Read my signature.

A conservative believes that only equality before the law and moral equality are a good thing. He is skeptical of other kinds believing that humans are quite different and feels there is an eternal tension between liberty and equality.

As Russell Kirk put it.

The Kirk Center - Ten Conservative Principles by Russell Kirk

Fifth, conservatives pay attention to the principle of variety. They feel affection for the proliferating intricacy of long-established social institutions and modes of life, as distinguished from the narrowing uniformity and deadening egalitarianism of radical systems. For the preservation of a healthy diversity in any civilization, there must survive orders and classes, differences in material condition, and many sorts of inequality. The only true forms of equality are equality at the Last Judgment and equality before a just court of law; all other attempts at levelling must lead, at best, to social stagnation. Society requires honest and able leadership; and if natural and institutional differences are destroyed, presently some tyrant or host of squalid oligarchs will create new forms of inequality.
Shakespeare is different

Face it. Social conservatism is not entertaining and it is not popular amongst the youth nor would it pull in audiences.
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I disagree and I'm a youth. It could be made entertaining. It might have to be slightly higher brow than the titillating social liberalism of Eastenders but it can be made entertaining enough.
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Wessexman said:
Read my signature.

A conservative believes that only equality before the law and moral equality are a good thing. He is skeptical of other kinds believing that humans are quite different and feels there is an eternal tension between liberty and equality.

I disagree and I'm a youth. It could be made entertaining. It might have to be slightly higher brow than the titillating social liberalism of Eastenders but it can be made entertaining enough.
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All well and good and i may agree with some aspects of it but still. I hardly see it as something negative if equality is shown.

I am young ... sorta and i would laugh at anyone who mentioned social conservatism on my screen. I would turn over channel faster than a bat from hell.
 
Laila said:
All well and good and i may agree with some aspects of it but still. I hardly see it as something negative if equality is shown.
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To me it depends on how it is shown. In some ways, being a radical decentralist, I'm a lot more egalitarian than most conservatives. I don't much care for long, centralised hierarchies.

I am young ... sorta and i would laugh at anyone who mentioned social conservatism on my screen. I would turn over channel faster than a bat from hell.
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No offense but you're ideologically opposed to it anyway. Let's remember that, although I don't really want to follow this exact model, the likes of Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh and such get good viewing figures in fact they dwarf their more liberal counterparts.

Perhaps you're correct about the very low-brow stuff. I'm not expecting a socially conservative show in the spirit of BB but the medium and higher brow stuff could be a lot more balanced.
 
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