Jeremy Paxman savages BBC over its undue dominance of online media
Jeremy Paxman has spoken out against the present direction of the BBC by labelling it ‘smug’ and ‘complacent’ whilst exerting an undue influence in Britain’s online media landscape.
The Newsnight presenter railed against the public service broadcaster on a range of issues from the eye-watering payoffs divvyed out to departing executives to the scale of its gargantuan online news operation.
Speaking to the Guardian Paxman said: “It is smug. I love the BBC in many ways, but at the same time it has made me loathe aspects of it, and that is a very odd state of affairs.
“When I see people being given £1 million merely for walking out of the door, when I see £100 million being blown on that DMI [digital media initiative] thing, a stupid technical initiative like that, I start wondering: how much longer are we going to test the public’s patience?”
Suggesting that the corporation may have over-reached itself Paxman queried the very existence of Radio 1, adding: “There’s a pile of stuff on the BBC I can’t stand . . . I don’t quite understand why the BBC does Radio 1Xtra, I don’t really understand why it does Radio 1.”
At the root of Paxman’s disquiet is a creeping expansionism which has seen the number of television and radio stations steadily proliferate, which Paxman fears has been at the expense of commercial rivals.
Paxman joins a growing army of in-house rebels including John Humphrys, Jennifer Saunders and David Dimbleby – all of whom have spoken out in recent months.