The BBC lack of judgment in treating IS fairly weakens their case to keep or even increase the licence fee.
And how very aberrant of the broadcaster to choose this time and this topic to return to anachronistic notions of fair play, after over a generation of allegedly espousing a modernizing crusade in broadcasting – badly, as it turns out.
With predictable poor aim and judgment, BBC chiefs chose the legitimacy (or illegitimacy) of so called Islamic State (IS) with which to ‘virtue signal’ its latest example of probity and even-handedness. This, in light of 30 years or more of shameless left political bias at home that culminated in a general election coverage less than two months ago that amply demonstrated this, but all this in addition to the contempt with which they believe we had all forgotten, AND the further signaling of the corporation management’s unerring ability to back a loser.
Further, with breath-taking arrogance the BBC reportedly refused the demands yesterday of 120 MPs to drop the term Islamic State, over the House’s concerns that it legitimizes terror and Levantine lawlessness. The BBC justifies its policy on the grounds – they said – that they must be impartial in their reporting.
Commons leader Chris Grayling quite rightly suggested that the broadcaster should not seek to be any more balanced towards IS than it would have been towards the Nazis. Currently, politicians on all sides have pledged to drop the IS moniker in favour of a different term.
Surely, this stance by the BBC underscores yet again not only systemic failure to grasp their Charter or mission, but also the fact that individuals there have actually lost their moral compass as well. So single-minded is their arrogance and cult of certainty too, that they likely believe the licence-paying public will actually fall for it. This surely is the broadcaster administering the coup de grace to any remaining vestiges of public support.
With his second face, meanwhile, BBC chairman Lord Hall of Birkenhead cries foul toward the public gallery over a rumoured Night of the Long Knives that is approaching, in which parliament will put
BBC funding and the broadcaster’s fitness to invest it safely under the most rigorous scrutiny – probably with a view to reining in the Beeb’s cashflow.
In this context, it is reported today that the BBC is to cut more than 1000 jobs and purge its ‘ten layers of management’ in an effort to address a £150 million licence-fee deficit. Watch what happens next…
Given this track record of lamentable mismanagement at Portland Place, do we really believe in the ability of the decision-makers within the BBC to exercise sound judgment in this? Or, to put it another way, do we believe Tony Hall & Co have the wit and chutzpah to offload the Head of Better class of useless apparatchik in the interests of actually enhancing the creative and broadcasting resource, or… er, not.
The wish for a policy of impartial evenhandedness in dealing with a diaspora of witless, lawless, misery-hungry murderers throughout Persia and our own high streets doesn’t bode well, does it?
The broadcaster has worked tirelessly since the 1970s to lose the hearts and minds of its once adoring and unflinchingly supportive public. It beggars belief that they now view with incredulity the very real likelihood they are set to lose our BBC licence fees as well.