The nuances in UK media are difficult to spot, but let me spell out the reality. The BBC (and to some degree, Sky) have utterly and totally destroyed all competition in media in the UK.
At the same time, we live in the world described by Orwell in 1984, except that it’s far worse. The Government can pry over anything we do, without recourse.
They have also taxed us to pay for the destruction of UK media in the face of an American onslaught (“the licence fee”). Our Government has sold out our media
industry to the US without batting an eyelid.
And let me no longer mince my words and pretend to pander to the edges. The BBC has, without any doubt, been the central factor in destroying UK media.
Tomorrow – yes, tomorrow – we will wake up and realise that all UK media of any consequence is owned either by the tax payer or by Rupert Murdoch. Who else has any influence ?
And therein lies our salvation. Allowing someone to control 30% of the UK TV distribution market is, actually, illegal (25% is our measure of a monopoly), so, please , can one of these idiotic political parties have something approximating a policy on this and take Murdoch down to legal levels of operation. Thank you.
Also, the fact that a local media company is likely to pay a reporter £15k whilst the BBC will pay them £35k means that local media cannot exist in the UK. Therefore, the BBC must be cut down to size and pay market rates. Also, the civil servants that run the organisation should be paid in line with our representatives that have been so severely tested of late. I have no problem with an MP being accountable, but having the boss of the BBC being paid four times the salary of the boss of this company (i.e. the PM) seems like utter, total madness….
Mark Thomson should be paid 40o% of the Prime Minister’s salary. If he won’t work for that, I will. And, believe me, I’ll do a much better job. It really wouldn’t be difficult.
My proposal is that the BBC should be paired down to a PBS services, and its budget cut by 75% so that the licence is £40. (Actually, in my view this stupid licence should be paid on devices, not on a nebulous services BTW…).
Meanwhile, C4 should be privatised. It has nothing to do with any public service remit that I can understand. Having the tax payer subsidising Big Brother is just an insult to out collective intelligence.
So, who’s up for change ?
Excerpt from:
Orwell’s Nightmare..
