Everybody Knows Smaller Is Not Better, Just Smaller

Michael Hedges November 1, 2021 Follow on Twitter

Big media centers evolve over time, similar to automotive and tech centers. People drive this more than any other aspect. Genial competition is seen as a benefit, skills are shared, enhanced and qualified. Specialized support is abundant. Everybody has a fun time, growing and learning. So it comes as a surprise - or not - that certain external elements want to break it all down.

Culture warriors within the UK Conservative Party consume hours upon hours denigrating public broadcaster BBC. It has been a decades-long process to rid BBC radio and television of “leftists,” “elitists” and other “fellow travelers.” Central to the ire most recently has been London-based operations, not limited to news and public affairs. Conservative Party politicians view London not as the world class cultural and economic center it is but, rather as Sodom and Gomorrah. Certain newspaper publishers and broadcasters have supported this mostly for competitive reasons.

Citing the right-wing political talking point of “serving the whole of the UK,” BBC Director General Tim Davie announced six months ago a vast plan to relocate vast swaths of BBC operations, excluding the executive wings, from London to the hinterlands. It has gone down well among the elderly fox-hunting set, BBC staff not so much. A BBC lifer, Mr. Davie succeeded Tony Hall as director general in September 2020. He had briefly served as a Conservative Party member of parliament in the early 1990s.

This grand relocation scheme is quite similar to Denmark’s former right-wing government’s plan to redistribute public broadcaster DR staff and production assets away from Copenhagen, using many of the same arguments heard in the UK. That failed spectacularly with huge resistance, both internal and external, and massive expenditures. The Danish People’s Party then mandated a government-funded, privately operated radio channel to compete with DR. The private operators, a large newspaper group, threw in the towel when ordered to relocate most staff and operations to the hinterlands. General elections in 2019 effectively removed the Danish People’s Party, controversy over DR changes figuring significantly. The radio channel disappeared to the DAB platform under a different name.

Three-quarters of the BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat 40 person staff “declined” relocation to Birmingham. Newsbeat is the news and public affairs section serving Radio 1 and other BBC radio channels moving from London. Cited reasons vary, reported the Guardian (October 19). Some are miffed at an increased physical distance from department heads who remain in London and no other BBC news department is located in Birmingham. The cost of living adjustment for London employment would be lost, handing a pay-cut to all. Those with a sharp eye on the career path would rather hang with London because of infinitely more opportunities not to forget proximity to recruiters and agents. Said one: “Good luck trying to get young, exciting journalists to move to Digbeth.” That’s the Bohemian neighborhood in Birmingham under relentless renovation. Others have housing concerns; being priced-out on London on any possible return.

BBC World Service business news staff has refused to move to Salford. Long-serving and much admired BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones - known for Tech Tent on radio - chose exit over a move to Glasgow. BBC radio and TV anchor Katty Kay resigned in May to join the ill fated Ozy Media as executive director. "I think we're in a moment of great change and flux, and it's been accelerated by changes due to COVID," she said to Axios (May 26). "But it's opened us up to what is possible. It's a moment to spread our wings. Mostly, I think we're going to have fun.” The new job lasted less than three months, ending in the oft reported Ozy Media meltdown. She continues to work with US cable TV channel MSNBC.

Twice since his appointment Mr. Davie has implemented directives to BBC staff on impartiality, a vague but central tenet since the broadcaster’s founding. First, a year ago, he admonished journalists and editors to park their personal views while on social media and “in public life,” meaning in extracurricular speeches and presentations. “I am prepared to take the appropriate disciplinary action all the way to termination,” he told the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee, quoted by The Times (September 29 2020), principally owned by the Murdoch family.

More recently Mr. Davie announced plans to appoint new external impartiality investigators. That came after new UK Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries complained of “snobbish, elitist groupthink” within the BBC, making not so veiled threats about funding,” reported Express (October 4). With BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg reportedly in negotiations for a job change, DCMS select committee chairperson Julian Knight said her replacement would be an opportunity “for the BBC, maybe, to look at journalists who have a much more pro-Brexit [approach],” reported The Telegraph (October 24). Brexit - the UK divorce from the European Union - is widely faulted, along with the government’s coronavirus response, for an unending array of failures affecting peole in the UK. “Davie’s focus on impartiality is driven by pressure from the UK government,” noted UK media news portal Deadline (October 29).

Many employment sectors, not limited to the UK, are experiencing what has been called The Great Resignation or, said Forbes (July 16), The Big Quit. Workers motivated to change jobs - or simply sit out - cite wage and salary stresses as well as, significantly, brain-dead employment policies. The UK advertising business is under recruitment pressure, noted ad business portal Campaign (October 30), citing London housing costs. People, generally, liked the flexibility measures (work-life balance) and do not like intrusive surveillance.

See also...

• Hot Topics - The BBC

• Hot Topics - Public Broadcasting