OF COURSE, the right-wing sections of the press and David Quarrie’s supporters are enjoying the discomfiture of the BBC over its recent mishandling of the Jimmy Savile and the wrongly accused Tory peer news items (Beeb in a mess, Letters, November 13).

But at least the Beeb’s executives have had the good grace to resign their posts, unlike the Murdochs in the News of the World hacking scandal.

Remember Minnie Dowler? If Mr Quarrie had his way, we would, like millions of Americans, be fed Fox-type news and low-grade TV programmes frequently interrupted by commercials – all in the sacred name of private enterprise.

For 70 years the BBC has been the world’s pre-eminent broadcaster, the envy of everyone.

Let us cherish it – one of the few remaining voices for the people, maddeningly independent of the press, the trades unions and the posh boys alike. Long may Auntie reign!

RH Powell, Cawood Common, Selby.

 

• REGARDING the latest fiasco at the BBC, with the unseemly haste in incorrectly “identifying” Lord McAlpine as a child abuser, I believe this to be a classic example of the left-wing bias which has dominated BBC news reporting for a generation.

I am confident that had this been a Blairite Labour peer rather than an old colleague of Lady Thatcher, then the editorial checks would have been more stringent.

To compound the whole debacle, the tax payer is expected to reward catastrophic failure by stumping up £450,000 to pay off George Entwistle.

The equally ineffective Lord Patten is now trumpeting “root and branch” reform to restore the BBC’s reputation.

I would suggest he starts by ensuring that all news and current affairs programmes, rather than generally propagating the views of The Guardian newspaper, give a fair and balanced view on a range of subjects, including membership of the EU, mass immigration, climate change and the Christian church.

In the interests of fairness, I would also suggest that the prime minister is described with either his title or as David Cameron, rather than the often sneering reference to Cameron, while the Labour leader is unfailingly referred to in the friendliest of terms as “Ed Miliband”.

Martin Smith, Main Street, Elvington, York.