‘Yes there is a problem. Yes we are correcting it’
29 April 2009
In an exclusive interview, Sir Michael Lyons, the BBC chairman, talks to Matthew d’Ancona about the licence fee, the Ross-Brand affair — and hints at flexibility over funding
If there is a stereotype of the BBC chairman, Sir Michael Lyons does not match it. Marmaduke Hussey, for instance, was the archetypal establishment patrician, while Gavyn Davies was one of the original New Labour cronies (felled by the Hutton Inquiry). Sir Michael, in contrast, has a beaming, technocratic countenance, the look of a brand manager at Sunshine Desserts who has good news for C.J. about tapioca sales. Which is probably a good thing, given the scale and the nature of the task that faces him, and the range of adversaries he confronts.
Squirrelled away in a modest office in Marylebone High Street, Sir Michael heads the BBC Trust that was formally established by Royal Charter in January 2007 and is quite distinct from the BBC’s Executive Board — the two bodies replacing the now defunct board of governors. In theory, the trust’s role is quite clear: to oversee the BBC, set its overall strategy and review its performance.
In practice, its precise function is, as they say in Whitehall, ‘evolving’. And as much as its 59-year-old chair vehemently resists the charge that he is ‘micro-managing’ the BBC, he is certainly having to roll up his shirt-sleeves and get his hands mucky. He says that the Trust is honour-bound to deliver ‘findings of detail’ and that the idea of declaring a contentious broadcast to be ‘broadly correct, broadly true — that fills me with horror’.
Consistent with that, he meets Mark Thompson, the BBC’s director-general, ‘about once a week, sometimes more often’. Though emphatic that his primary job is not to be ‘a flag waver... constantly defending’ the BBC, he became precisely that in January when Thompson was attacked for refusing to broadcast the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Gaza aid film.
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Roy
April 30th, 2009 10:22am Report this commentHaving read Francis Gilbert's 'Yob Nation', Theodore Dalrymple's 'Our Culture What's left of It', and last but not least Melanie Phillips 'Londonistan', any chairman of the BBC should seemingly resign forthwith. To have been at the helm of the nations premier cultural centrepiece must have known it's failure to grasp the responsibilities to promote an impartial public funded body was disgraceful. Unknowingly the public have promoted its own mindless cultural dismemberment. While receiving a sanitized, misguided, a left of centre interpretation of world news and events.
Merlyn
April 30th, 2009 10:24am Report this commentWhat gets me about the BBC is the continual use of thousands of pounds in license payers money to bury the Balen Report.This report states unequivocally that the good old BBC is wholly biased in its documentaries and news reportage against Israel. These are standards that I am forced to uphold by my payment of their license fee ...or I don't get any telly.
David
April 30th, 2009 1:17pm Report this comment"This report states unequivocally that "
Um, if the report is buried, how do you know what it states
itstrueekse
April 30th, 2009 2:23pm Report this commentI live in Mandelaland but lived in London over the Millenium years. I refused to pay for a license and suffered 3 years of what can only be described as threatening abuse. I didn't refuse to watch BBC for any other eason than the BBC considered that I was a captive consumer with no other choice - obviously, in this world, a ridiculous proposition.
How can anybody now defend a compulsory license fee?
David Short
April 30th, 2009 5:20pm Report this commentNot a very tough interview at all.
Don't let's forget D'Ancona receives more from the BBC than he pays to it in the licence fee.
Perhaps the Spectator should have sent an interviewer who is not a paid freelance broadcaster for the BBC.
robert
April 30th, 2009 9:02pm Report this commentThompson & Lyons need to address the simple point that the BBC's political output is indistinguishable from that of its house-newspaper version, The Guardian. No matter what subject is being covered on the Today programme, by whichever of its journalists, we ALWAYS know the viewpoint from which it will be addressed: lefty-liberal, big government, high tax, high immigration, crime-sympathising, multi-cultural, politically correct, mealy-mouthed bleeding heartdom. Is it any wonder that BBC journalists are on record as saying they celebrated Tony Blair's election victory with champagne?
Lyca
April 30th, 2009 9:52pm Report this commentA question Mr D'Ancona forgot to ask:
If the BBC is an ad-free medium, why does it buy rights to sprting events which are festooned with adverts?
Tom
May 1st, 2009 9:44am Report this commentThis interview ignored the main problem with the BBC, its left of centrre cultural and policital bias. The Jay report, and that oddly named Wagon wheel report confirm this. And there is no external body to handle complaints about bias.
The BBC is a sort of ideological vatican, monocultural, committed to 'diversity', to furthering Islam, according to Lyon and the DG himself.
The BBC shapes and demonises opinion, it must be worth several marginals at any election, for Labour/Lib Dems.
But this interview ignored this, the main problem! Why should we pay for the broadcast arm of the the Guardian?
Martin
May 1st, 2009 1:40pm Report this commentIt's nonsense to keep funding the BBC in the way it has been for over 60 years.
The BBC is no longer the main player out there. Sky, Virgin, the internet etc all offer services that you can either get free or pay for what you want.
The BBC offers me a white English male very little. BBC programming is aimed at minorities and women. So let them pay for it.
Mike
May 1st, 2009 5:33pm Report this commentI bought a television set last year and licenced it. The licence expired so I detuned the set. Brand and Ross were irrelevant to me; I don't watch as there is so much dross that I can't be bothered to sift through it for anything worth watching, on any channel. I'd rather read.
Twisted Root
May 2nd, 2009 10:35am Report this commentThis article is not so much 'champagne for the brain' as 'soma for the subnormal'.
Nick Chambers
May 3rd, 2009 9:31pm Report this commentThe licence fee should be abolished. Let's not kid ourselves that the BBC is a public service broadcaster. The BBC 6 O'Clock news for instance is puerile in the extreme. When it's not bashing the USA or any cause that doesn't adhere to its earnest sixth form view that is. The BBC is so out of touch it's painful.
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