There was an emollient performance by Culture Secretary John Whittingdale on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday, in which he said he had some sympathy with the luvvies' missive concocted in the BBC Charter Renewal bunker: "As for the letter which was published by the various celebrities, actually most of that I fully agreed with. As I said, I admire the BBC. The last thing I want to do is undermine the BBC."
The Mail suggests this tone comes from the top. "We don't want to get ahead of ourselves with these attacks,", they report, quoting a Cabinet minister. "People like the telly more than the Tories." A Tory minister of lower rank tells the Mail reporter "My concern is we don't want to be seen to be advocating the privatisation of The Archers." Certainly that had passed me by in the Green Paper.
Meanwhile, back in the BBC bunker, letter and Twitter-meister Danny Cohen is in for the social media long haul.
I'm told there's some unpleasant stuff in the papers about me in the last couple of days. Comes with standing up for the BBC.
#BackTheBBC
— Danny Cohen (@DannyCohen) July 18, 2015
On petition site 38 Degrees, the "Protect Our BBC" campaign stands at 231,692 signatories, a little behind the current chart topper. "Keep the ban on bee-killing pesticides" at 442,028.
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