http://www.thenational.scot/
I met Ms MacKinnon a couple of times when I was working. I should really say I was in the same room as her, because I doubt if many people get past the BBC front: polite, obviously clever, discreet. She is BBC to her fingertips. She's a BBC civil servant, in with the bricks.
I wasn't expecting much from her statement. I didn't think she was going to fall to her knees and confess: the BBC Scotland news is terrible, full of couthy wee stories from round the country, with an over-dependence on outside (and sometimes unverified) sources like the right-wing press and the police, and too many pieces that reflect the editor's interests rather than the public's. The rest of the programming has also gone down the tubes in the last decade, with less commissioning of new work in drama, fewer comedies and documentaries that just don't reflect life in Scotland.
My friends in the SNP will tell you the BBC copies the right wing press by hammering away at public services in Scotland, particularly, education, the NHS and the police. You can judge that for yourself by watching their news and current affairs programmes.
We don't get news in Scotland from anywhere else in the world, so that people like me with an interest in comparing our lives to those of people in - say - the greater Europe - still - as we have done for almost twenty years - watch Eorpa in Gaelic.
Ms MacKinnon's statement reads for all the world like the kind of statement that the Tories under Thatcher and then Major used to issue when they were getting a hammering in the polls: the problem is, they used to say, the public just don't understand what we're trying to tell them. The message is being lost. The Labour party in Scotland took the same line when it lost the confidence of the Scottish public. Yes, Labour really did represent us. It really did have a lot to offer. It just wasn't managing to persuade us.
In the case of the Tories and Labour, the secret for some of us was: we'd heard their messages and we didn't like them. So we rejected them at the ballot box.
We don't have that power over the BBC. Yes, it has a panel of people from all over the UK to reflect the views of licence holders. Scotland has one representative on the BBC Board. It also has one representative on the BBC Trust. How do these people represent our views? I'm not sure. If there's a way to read the minutes of their meetings or to send them message like emails, I can't find it on the BBC website. In my view, the difference between political parties and the BBC isn't just that we can vote to get rid of politicians. It's very difficult to opt out of the BBC 'service.' We pay for the BBC. We have to, on pain of earning a criminal record if we refuse. People who don't have a TV and so don't need a TV licence find themselves constantly pursued as probable lawbreakers. It's a ridiculous situation which doesn't apply to any other public body in the UK.
I admit to having a bad track record with the BBC. I once tried to sign up as a member of the BBC Trust. I knew I wasn't likely to be accepted, but I wanted to know the process. I was directed to fill in the application form for employees. I filled in 11 pages - with some difficulty because it wanted every last detail of my academic background but, sadly, didn't leave room for me to explain that Scottish qualifications are different from English ones. With no sign of how many more pages were still to come, I gave up. I've also written to programme makers a couple of times asking why they took such and such an approach (usually a negative one) and have always got a reply - high-handed, smarmy, but at least a reply.
What I really miss in Ms MacKinnon's statement is any sign of an apology for letting us down. It's been evident for a long time now that the BBC isn't providing the service people want in Scotland. How does BBC Scotland get feedback on its programmes? There's a rumour there's a viewer/listener panel. How are members recruited? How do viewers find out what they're saying?
There are probably a lot of other questions. Why is the BBC budget so small when people in Scotland pay in so much? Is there a balance sheet showing how the money is spend? Can we see it? Who controls the news input? Glasgow or London? I hope it's London, because that would explain why the news and the late night BBC2 current affairs programmes are so bad.
And no, I'm not advocating getting rid of the BBC. I am in favour of making it accountable and being seen to be accountable to the people who pay for it.
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