Public rejects Murdoch view of BBC, says ICM poll.
James Murdoch, the European chief executive of News International, attacked the BBC last month, claiming that "the BBC's growth has a "chilling" effect on consumer choice".
He also attacked what he called the "expansion of state-sponsored journalism" on the BBC's website, as if this was intrinsically a very bad thing.
The notion that the work of News International deserved protection from the BBC struck me as fanciful. The BBC, unlike News International, have no axe to grind and protect no corporate interests. They exist and survive solely on the licence fee which we pay them. And I trust their output more than that of almost any other broadcaster.
I am pleased to note that a majority of Brits appear to feel exactly the same way.
An overwhelming majority, 77%, think the BBC is an institution people should be proud of – up from 68% in an equivalent ICM poll carried out five years ago. Most, 63%, also think it provides good value for money – up from 59% in 2004.77% think the BBC is an institution that we should be proud of and 69% say that it is trustworthy. That's an astonishing vote of confidence for any public institution.
Since the previous poll the BBC has come under fire for the standards of its journalism, after the Hutton inquiry and during the scandal involving fake phone-in competitions on high-profile programmes and wrongly edited footage of the Queen.
But public confidence in the corporation's output has grown. Asked if the BBC is trustworthy, 69% now say yes, against 60% in 2004. Only 26% disagree.
And it's a welcome signal that the attacks by Murdoch and News International have had no effect at all on the British public's trust of the BBC.
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2 comments:
Can I take it then that the Murdochs have no less compunction against lying for their own personal gain in Europe than they do here in the States? There's an example of an empire that needs to fall if there ever was one.
No, they don't lie as much over here as they do over there. But that is why they would love to break the British public's love of the BBC, as they see that as one of their greatest obstacles to their domination of ideas, but it's never going to happen.
The BBC is genuinely loved here. Because the BBC tell the truth. That concept is almost foreign to News International.
We have the intertubes - we can witness the travesty that is Fox News - so we can see where they would like to take us.
I am very proud that so many Brits reject their logic.
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