On a recent thread (not sure which one now), one of our regular contributing colleagues was complaining about the licence fee and that he never watches BBC but has to pay the £150 irrespective.
That is a fair point and one that I do sympathise with to a degree. However, with what happened last night with the Tories creating a spoof 'factcheck' twitter account, it does throw an argument up which is this. In these days of lies and social media reliance, who can we rely on for an independent and reliably objective viewpoint.
With our newspapers bias standpoints and the threat of a Fox and Friends type news channel if we are not careful we could become overwhelmed with, dare I say it, fake news and be largely none the wiser.
To that end, the BBC has a potentially vital role is arbitrating fairness on the whole and having a position of treating all parties (not necessary political) with an even-handedness. On that basis, I would argue that £150 is a price worth paying, not just for the TV news but also the multitude of radio stations that support news throughout the UK (and the World!)
That is a fair point and one that I do sympathise with to a degree. However, with what happened last night with the Tories creating a spoof 'factcheck' twitter account, it does throw an argument up which is this. In these days of lies and social media reliance, who can we rely on for an independent and reliably objective viewpoint.
With our newspapers bias standpoints and the threat of a Fox and Friends type news channel if we are not careful we could become overwhelmed with, dare I say it, fake news and be largely none the wiser.
To that end, the BBC has a potentially vital role is arbitrating fairness on the whole and having a position of treating all parties (not necessary political) with an even-handedness. On that basis, I would argue that £150 is a price worth paying, not just for the TV news but also the multitude of radio stations that support news throughout the UK (and the World!)
