Alex Cox’s site has now left the BBC, so his first weekly diary on his own site is all about the BBC. He’s absolutely spot on about all the BBC bashers and the general distaste that we should all feel for them with their own collection of views and beliefs. Murdoch, Kaufman, Conrad Black, and New Labour. Aside from Murdoch who has a commercial operation to run and for whom the BBC is a competitor (raising the quality threshhold beyond what he can manage), one has to ask why so many people dislike the BBC.
Still, in case anyone ever sympathises with these people sometimes, just read this piece by Maggie Brown about the RTS Cambridge convention. In both speakers mentioned, the key missing point, was that media has a duty to inform as well as entertain its audience. Failure to do so will just lead to dumber country than ever, and I don’t want to be part of that.