Taking us for granted? The bbc licence fee debate kicks off | thearticle

The licence fee debate has had a disappointing start. On Monday morning on the Today programme Nick Robinson told Nadhim Zahawi that the BBC is “one of the most successful broadcasters in

the world”. Robinson didn’t bother to make the argument for the BBC; he just asserted that that is what it is. No ifs, no buts. No acknowledgment of any criticisms anyone might want to make

of the BBC. That set the tone for what followed on social media all day as various BBC presenters and reporters, past and present, made the same claim and didn’t seem to think anyone might

have a different view. The only exception I came across was the presenter Dan Walker, who tweeted: “I am well aware that the BBC makes mistakes and needs to change but the media landscape

would be much poorer without it. Those 3 letters are trusted and respected around the world.” Of course, Twitter is not the place for extended debate, but even so Walker could have asked:

“How does the BBC need to change? Why does it make mistakes? Why has it become so out of touch with parts of the nation?” Others didn’t even want to engage with criticisms at all. Tim Dee,

who has worked at the BBC for over twenty years, wrote, “I loved my BBC life. To see it casually demolished (and not even getting top headlines), fracked into oblivion, is wretched. It’s an

end of the world thing.” Is it really “an end of the world thing” — or could the BBC win over the Government by mending its ways, reaching out to parts of the country who it’s lost, dealing

with bias, especially in its new output, and cutting out the woke certainties which annoy so many licence fee payers? Laura Trevelyan, an English BBC anchor/correspondent based in New York,

wrote, “BBC journalists speak truth to power. See @BBCSteveR grilling Belarus’s leader. @sarahrainsford expelled from Russia after her tough questioning of the same ally of Moscow. Plus our

reporting from China on what’s happening in Xinjiang province. That’s the value of @BBCNews.” She’s right. These have been high-points of recent international coverage on the BBC. But it’s a

selective list. What about all the criticisms of anti-Israel bias, the loss of excellent broadcasters like Katty Kay and Nick Bryant, the bizarre tendency to cast people from the tiny

Left-wing sect, Novara Media, on so many BBC news programmes, the anti-Brexit bias that played such a strong part in the BBC’s coverage of the EU referendum? She could at least have

acknowledged that there was a debate to be had and that BBC News has its critics. Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, joined the chorus of praise, calling the BBC “a beloved national

treasure”. For some, certainly. But the point is that many no longer see the BBC that way and want it defunded. Asserting that the BBC is a “national treasure” for the whole nation doesn’t

make it so. In many respects it is. It offers a tremendous amount for the licence fee, as numerous BBC workers pointed out on social media, but others will point to the serious loss of

sports rights, the decline of drama and history and science programmes — unless they are presented by celebrities. A number of people showed the famous 1985 video with John Cleese and a cast

of famous figures from the BBC, in which Cleese kept saying, “What’s the BBC ever done for us?” But this ad for the BBC has not aged too well in the last 36 years. “Superb news coverage”?

“Some jolly good cricket coverage… and golf”?  “Excellent drama”? Some of it is, of course. But this New Year the big drama highlights were on Netflix: “The Lost Daughter” with Olivia Colman

and Jessie Buckley, Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” with Benedict Cumberbatch, Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Tick, Tick … Boom!” with Andrew Garfield. The

historian Tom Holland was more damning. “Everyone in that video is either dead, cancelled or David Attenborough,” he wrote. Simon Day, one of the stars of The Fast Show in the 1990s,

tweeted, “BBC COMEDY Monty python’s flying circus the office the fast show Steptoe and son only fools and horses porridge Fleabag Victoria wood Hancock Blackadder Dads army Fawlty towers

Nighty night the royal family Harry Enfield little Britain WHAT YOU GOT SKY?” As someone cruelly pointed out, “With the honourable exception of Fleabag, these admittedly brilliant programmes

were made years ago.” This is the problem. The BBC so many of us loved was a long time ago. 1985 was a great year to make an ad showing off all the BBC had to offer. Almost forty years on,

it doesn’t look so compelling. Less than ten years ago, at Christmas, BBC1 showed Sherlock and the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Sherlock is no more, hence Cumberbatch on Netflix and Martin

Freeman on Breeders on FX, and Doctor Who’s ratings are in free-fall. There’s something rather smug about the refusal by so many at the BBC to engage with its critics, or even to make the

argument for itself. I sincerely hope Tim Davie can do better to win the hearts and minds of the nation and convince us all of the need for a universal licence fee. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE

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