I’m confounded as to why a dancing show now features on morning news, on the highbrow Newsnight, indeed, end-to-end on BBC news. But never on any other channel (but, admittedly, on newspaper front pages).
The BBC’s insidious promotion of its own programmes needs to be addressed. Dancing shows have no place in news programmes.
The BBC need immediate reform from the top down; it is a fat, arrogant and stupid organisation that betrays its legacy. The BBC employees that I meet who are the most happy are:
- the management, who earn breathtaking salaries for a public body – junior management earns what the Prime Minister gets
- accountants – they all seem to love working at the BBC – go figure
- lawyers – internal and external love the BBC – again, go figure
There are a lot of good people trying hard to make great programmes and continue the service that the BBC was, but they are being buried by the wastrels who think that dance shows has a place in mainstream news.
Of course, the programme makers have every right to promote their show, but news channels shoudl be cynical.
The only upside is that having to report on this has shown ‘serious news presenters’ like Jeremy Paxman for the utter hypocrite that he is. If he really believed in a news agenda he would have drawn a line and walked out of the studio. I have no doubt that Jon Snow would have, and so would Dan Rather and many of his generation. Clearly, Paxman would sell his granny for the Beeb’s big, fat cheque… And that’s the problem. The UK media industry is skewed by the totally riddiculous salaries paid by the BBC to a favoured few. Things need to change rapidly.
As fewer and fewer people can afford their licence fees, the role of the BBC will, finally, be truly challenged. And rightly so.
Dancing Beeb
