Open for debate?
Lyons warns Paxo and Humphrys
It's hard to decide what to think of the ongoing crisis in relation to the BBC's funding for the sole reason that the recent licence fee negogiations between the BBC and the Government were conducted in private. And obviously the new (and less impressive) sums raised via the licence fee mean that some compulsory cutbacks are indeed an inevitable outcome.
Therefore it's rather difficult to conclude whether or not Mark Thompson had completely botched the negogiations or that key decisions were made at the time simply because there was no other choice when the BBC was forced into a corner as a result of the Treasury's desire to keep inflation low.
Although there may be no choice in relation to the issue of saving money, there ought to be at least some public debate over whether or not factual programming should bear the brunt of the cutbacks as opposed to simply waiting for further details to be announced next week.
The future of the BBC is far too important an issue for there to be no public debate whatsoever.
