View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. News
October 14, 2009

Standard: ‘BBC is horrendous institution that happens to make rather good programmes’

By Gary Neale

The Evening Standard investigation into the BBC continued yesterday with an article headlined “How the BBC survives.”

In part two Stephen Robinson writes about “how much [the BBC] feels like a government department and how little like a news operation”.

An unnamed BBC source said: “Everything shuts down at six o’clock, and Television Centre is deserted at the weekend, which is amazing when you think that it’s part of one of the biggest media organisations in the world.”

He says: “As details have emerged of the enormous salaries of the executives and the on-screen ‘talent’, old-school journalists who believe in the public broadcasting ethos seethe at top management’s failure to appreciate the damage done to their beloved institution.”

A well-known TV presenter told Robinson: “I call it Kremlinitis. Those at the top spend their whole time talking to each other, so they are genuinely surprised by outside criticism.”

Robinson goes on to criticise director general Mark Thompson saying: “More revealing is Thompson’s assumption that only the BBC’s rivals have motives, while the corporation itself is driven solely by a post-Reithian altruism.”

But Robinson does admit “that the BBC may not get enough credit for its commitment to quality programming and good journalism”.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

One presenter told Robinson: “”I’ve always said the BBC is a horrendous institution that happens to make rather good programmes,” but “the institution has got worse, and the programmes rather less good in recent years”.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network