{"id":150487,"date":"2015-05-12T16:35:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T16:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/target\/tories-at-war-with-bbc-future-of-state-broadcaster-unclear-under-conservatives\/"},"modified":"2015-05-12T16:35:24","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T16:35:24","slug":"tories-at-war-with-bbc-future-of-state-broadcaster-unclear-under-conservatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/politics\/tories-at-war-with-bbc-future-of-state-broadcaster-unclear-under-conservatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Tories \u2018at war\u2019 with BBC? Future of state broadcaster unclear under Conservatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

(RT<\/a>) –\u00a0Following the appointment of license-fee skeptic John Whittingdale to the cabinet on Monday, the UK\u2019s right-wing press have sent out a flurry of front pages declaring the government is already \u2018at war\u2019 with the BBC.<\/p>\n

Whittingdale has long been a staunch critic of the license-fee, a compulsory charge that costs television owners \u00a3145.50 per year to fund the BBC.<\/p>\n

He has previously called the charge \u201c worse than the poll tax .\u201d Whittingdale\u2019s critics say his appointment may spell the end of the broadcaster as a public body.<\/p>\n

His promotion to secretary of state for culture comes as discussions about the fee\u2019s renewal and BBC funding begins.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the BBC on Tuesday, newly appointed Business Secretary Sajid Javid backed the appointment of Whittingdale, saying he was \u201c hugely experienced \u201d and an \u201c excellent choice \u201d for the role.<\/p>\n

\u201c There is a bit of over-excitement in those headlines, \u201d Javid cautioned.<\/p>\n

He added that Whittingdale was \u201c someone who is hugely experienced not least because over the last few years he has been head of the select committee that oversaw my old department, he has looked into this issue [of the BBC] many times.\u201d \u2018Dictator-arming\u2019 BAE boss must resign from BBC Trust, say activists \u201cHe is the right person to take this forward. There is every 10 years a charter review process so the BBC\u2019s charter is looked at afresh. That process is now starting, he will lead that process. It will be driven by evidence, there will be lots of stakeholders in that process but that is the best way to take these type [sic] of decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The leader article in the Telegraph, a paper which has traditionally opposed the license-fee, quoted Downing Street sources who said Whittingdale would \u201csort out the BBC. \u201d The paper claimed many Tories had been \u201c furious \u201d at the BBC\u2019s supposedly left-wing bias during the general election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are now concerns that the corporation’s coverage of the EU referendum in 2017 could betray a pro-EU bias,\u201d the paper claimed.<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of Whittingdale’s appointment, a senior Tory source told the paper: \u201c It\u2019s increasingly clear the BBC is governed by ideology. The way they handled the negotiations over the debates was appalling. There were times during the campaign when the coverage did seem skewed in Labour\u2019s favor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contrary to Conservative claims, independent watchdog Media Lens noted the BBC was also responsible for producing some pro-Tory material and had penned a veritable \u201clove letter\u201d to Cameron after his re-election.<\/p>\n

They said \u201cthe puff piece claimed that Cameron\u2019s \u2018presentational skills were never in doubt\u2019 and pointed to \u2018his easy charm and ability to appear \u2018prime ministerial\u2019 at news conferences and summits.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

When asked by the BBC whether he believed the license fee should come to an end, Javid said: \u201cIt\u2019s time to have the charter review, it is a process that will take place over a number of months, it should be driven by the evidence.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to the long term future of the BBC, clearly there have been a lot of changes in the broadcasting environment, not least technology changes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s sensible to look at that, to make sure the BBC is on a sustainable long term funding arrangement and I know John is just the right person for that job,<\/em>\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(RT) –\u00a0Following the appointment of license-fee skeptic John Whittingdale to the cabinet on Monday, the UK\u2019s right-wing press have sent out a flurry of front pages declaring the government is already \u2018at war\u2019 with the BBC. Whittingdale has long been a staunch critic of the license-fee, a compulsory charge that costs television owners \u00a3145.50 per […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-150487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-politics","9":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}