John Humphrys calls for BBC to be slashed by a third
Veteran presenter John Humphrys has called for the BBC to be shrunk by as much as a third after deciding that the organisation has become too big for its boots and lost track of its founding principles.
Humphrys complained that the public sector broadcaster has become focussed on ‘box-ticking’ exercises at the expense of educating and entertaining – putting the principle of the license fee under threat when it next comes under review.
Speaking to the Media Society the Today presenter said: “The values of (first BBC director general) Lord Reith, were to "inform, educate and entertain". I do worry we get those a little muddled at times. Entertainment gets pushed up too far.”
Humphrys voiced further unease at the creeping influence of lawyers bureaucrats over editors adding: “We didn’t have the word "compliance" in the past. I’m deeply uneasy about it.
‘As far as I’m concerned if you’re the editor of the Today programme, you make decisions based on your knowledge and judgment rather than go through a book and say "am I fully compliant?"
‘There is an amazing amount of box ticking and it worries me. I won’t say there haven’t been times when I’ve used fairly robust language on the editorial floor and made my views clear to my superiors.”
Humphrys concluded: “It (the BBC) is too big. We could take out a third of it I think.”