BBC chief to take on critics at Edinburgh International Television Festival

Mark Thompson to conduct lecture in defense of the Beeb at the annual James MacTaggart lecture

By New Statesman Published 27 August 2010

BBC director-general Mark Thompson plans to tackle critics with a lecture defending the corporation, at the Edinburgh International Television Festival on Friday night.

In an email to employees, Thompson said he will offer a "robust" defence of the BBC at the annual James MacTaggart lecture, against criticism from the corporation's commercial rivals and politicians.

The BBC has been under immense political pressure lately over its spending and inflated staff salaries at a time when the public sector is following austerity measures.

Thompson is planning to use the opportunity to respond to James Murdoch's onslaught against the BBC. Murdoch in his MacTaggart speech last year had labelled the corporation's scale and scope as "chilling".

The director-general is likely to highlight some of the BBC's successes and stress that the corporation remains hugely popular with the public despite several criticisms. He may also point to his recent strategy review, which promised cutbacks and pay cuts to its top executives.

Media analysts view the MacTaggart speech as critical to the BBC's future.

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Tags: Mark Thompson BBC

2 comments

Sat, 2010-08-28 03:47 — jie4v7i14

BBC should have stayed as a one national channel when ITV started in the mid-fifties, and let the commercial world get on with it. OK, a couple of national radio channels too, and regional tv and radio broadcasting centres for local news and a couple of local progs.

But the BBC has become a dysfunctinal tory political tool, and it is getting worse. That's Life programme from the 1970s and 1980s - if you would look at the repeats of that, if they have not been scrubbed due to small-minded cost saving, will make you cringe. It is as if they were not the 'B'BC, the way they ripped into BL and other British industries. It's as if they were living in a toughened glasshouse.

The beeb needs cutting back. £140 odd just to own a telly is just simply a joke, totally dysfunctional.

Sun, 2010-08-29 01:30 — jeremiah

@EhtchTee. If BBC2 did not exist we would have Newsnight etc. When ITV started in 1955 it nearly destroyed the BBC as a Television station. The Beeb had to change that is why it in the '60s it created Radio 1, BBC2 etc. and was the first to introduce colour tv to the UK.

Sure the BBC should always be looking to change and improve but not at the behest of that shit Murdoch who isn't even a UK citizen.

The BBC is the world's most important broadcaster with a radio and TV archive going back nearly 100 years. It ain't perfect but what is?