91Èȱ¬ in the news, Monday
Daily Telegraph: Reports that 91Èȱ¬ News will have to cut hundreds of jobs in order to save money. ()
The Guardian: Article on the revamped 91Èȱ¬4 and 91Èȱ¬ World programme World News Today. ()
Independent: Interview with Jeremy Vineon his life in the media. ()
Comments
Oh dear oh dear!
The Telegraph article says right at the top, "The news budget must be cut by five per cent a year for five years to meet the terms imposed by the Government."
I would just like to say for the record, and at the risk of disagreeing with our elected administrators, the independent nature of the 91Èȱ¬'s news in not only a credit to the nation, but a great service to the world. Mr Murdoch (World President) and chums might not like the fact, but it's true.
To de-emphasise the 91Èȱ¬'s capacity to gather and report news - (I'll say it again) in a context independent of state or multinational corporate media interests - appears to me to benefit nobody but 'The State' or those multinational corporate media interests.
Do we elect our governmental administrators to make us less informed?
If fat has to be trimmed from the budget how about spending a little less on finding a lead for Andrew Lloyd-Weber's next west-end revival etc, and a bit more where it counts – on asking questions and finding answers.
Just a thought.
What about saving money by stop flying reporters all over the world to report on for instance: Icebergs (floating around during the normal iceberg season), Cannes film festival(10 people sent!!), Democrat leadership election (11/2 yrs before they actually get round to holding them!), the list is endless.
Also how about changing the World Service so that it actually gives some British news, rather then the latest anti-semetic rant from Gaza.
In fact whilst I am at it, why not stop all those awful cooking programmes on a Saturday morning/afternoon?.
News should be the last area cuts are made, a lot of your light entertainment output is duplicated on commercial stations so cuts there would make more sense.
The 91Èȱ¬ need to offer something different to the commercial broadcasters and one area they can do this is news and current affairs, if you don't offer anything different then I fail to see a reason for your existence and that of the licence fee.