Sir Robbie Gibb is a charmer, isn't he ? In today's Sunday Telegraph, he calls for more rigour in BBC News, with endless Ofsted-style enquiries into impartiality, whilst fundraising for a new 'news' channel, GB, free to say what it likes, as long as it's 'right'.
It is being driven by Andrew Cole, Chairman and CEO of Liberty Global, "The world's largest international TV and broadband company", and Mark Schneider, an American investor who grew UPC, now part of Liberty Global, in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, and Slovenia, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Liberty Global owns Virgin Media. The title of their investment vehicle, formed a year ago, is "All Perspectives".
Sir Robbie says the BBC has got 'out-of-London' wrong. "When the BBC moved some of its output out of London, it simply replaced metropolitan London with metropolitan Manchester, Leeds or Glasgow." One presumes the GB Channel will be based in somewhere funky, like Pendle, Redcar or Chipping Norton. And that Andrew Neil will bring a European perspective by Zoom, from his gaff in the South of France.
Surely GB can be what it likes. You don’t have to watch, nor will you have to cough up for it. The BBC on the other hand imposes a tax and is riddled with left of centre arrogance and smuggery from Newsnight through drama to “comedy”. The quotation marks are there so I don’t actually have to touch the word. Bit like you and “right”. KM
ReplyDeleteSurely GB can be what it likes. You don’t have to watch, nor will you have to cough up for it. The BBC on the other hand imposes a tax and is riddled with left of centre arrogance and smuggery from Newsnight through drama to “comedy”. The quotation marks are there so I don’t actually have to touch the word. Bit like you and “right”. KM
ReplyDelete