Nick Cohen puts a grammatically challenged question:

Who (sic) would you rather trust – the BBC or a blogger?

Back in about 1992 I was moved for the first time ever to write a letter to the BBC to complain about a news-clip from South Africa (where I had just served for four years). The clip contained five or six factual errors in about one minute. Weeks later a form reply appeared saying that my ‘views’ had been conveyed to the programme editors.

And that was that. My licence fee. No accountability.

Then this episode came along.

And what about the BBC’s free ads for Communism?

The problem with the BBC is that it purports to be in some sense ‘neutral’ and ‘professional’ but isn’t either of those things consistently. 

Hence, the question. 

Is it wise to trust someone who tells the truth 90% of the time and lies 10% of the time?

Or wiser to trust a ‘what you see is what you get’ blogger who is open about her/his prejudices and who tends to give straight answers when confronted by straight questions?

In terms of coverage of political issues and philosophies, bloggers are doing a better job in making different points of view available. See eg this. How often do libertarian ideas and radical free market appear on the key BBC current affairs outlets or on the exhausted Question Time?

Nick Cohen:

No rival can fill the gaps if the BBC pulls back from comprehensive reliable reporting. Soon, if its camera crews do not go to Nigeria, no one else’s will.

Not necessarily true. Nor, if the reports the BBC comes up with are not self-evidently reliable, does it necessarily matter any more. What is a BBC report from Nigeria other than a couple of well-paid people with cameras doing what they think makes sense? Michael Yon shows what can be done by honest, on-the-spot, privately funded, individual intrepid reporting.

Basically, the BBC is the answer to an IT problem of decades ago. It (like newspapers) is no longer needed in its current form. For cost-cutting reasons it has merged Facts with Analysis and Comment, so creating a conceptual mess featuring dumbed-down prima donna journalism with diminished professional responsibility.

Thus it writhes in agony.

One answer might be to keep the framework but under a new management ethos which ruthlessly punishes crass errors of judgement and open up the BBC’s infrastructure to market competition (rather like the way different IT companies can use the BT network in the UK to send products to one’s home).

Until then, back to Samizdata.