Legal action from Donald Trump following a doctored BBC Panorama interview have led to calls for reform of the way the corporation is managed and financed.
00:00There is concern that the BBC's traditional role as a trusted public service broadcaster is being tested.
00:08With legal action from Donald Trump and accuracy complaints making headlines,
00:13questions are being asked about how the BBC maintains trust while staying relevant in a changing media world.
00:21So what we've seen in sort of recent weeks, and indeed the accusations about the BBC have been sort of flying around for the last number of years,
00:28but what they did with the Trump speech was totally uncalled for because quite clearly you're going to just let Trump say the things that he says and that will stand its own sort of testimony.
00:37Nonetheless, you know, we have a sort of situation where the BBC is under attack, not for the first time, and I suspect not for the last time.
00:44The left hates it, the right despise it, so it must be doing something right.
00:48And it's really difficult to be a sort of a truly sort of objective sort of broadcaster in a world where, of course, that increasingly sort of younger people go for their news, some sort of other sort of mechanisms.
00:59So somehow or other, as I say, it has to sort of to be all things to all people and perhaps fail sometimes time.
01:05I believe that that's forgivable, although, of course, I'm sure there are going to be sort of changes as a consequence of what's happened.
01:10But, of course, the sort of the fact that we can watch programmes on TV or on the BBC channel without advertisements, you know, that's the big selling point.
01:20And indeed, as we know, in the newer platforms, you have to pay a higher subscription to be free of advertisements.
01:26So if the future is to sort of to be with advertisements, then it becomes a whole different sort of category.
01:32And, of course, you may sell your soul because we see this on sort of other sort of commercial broadcasters whereby programmes are literally sponsored by the sort of the companies that want to sort of get their products into our sort of minds.
01:47So, you know, where does it take us?
01:48Well, the BBC is going to have a sort of rough ride.
01:51I think the Labour Party, I don't think they're going to close it down.
01:53They're probably going to look very close to what the sort of the licence fee will sort of be, because, you know, for many people there are, you know, that's a sort of a major sort of expense that they could well do without.
02:03But, of course, if we didn't have that, the BBC wouldn't exist in sort of the shape and sort of form it has at the moment.
02:09Big questions, no easy answers.
02:11But I suspect if the BBC has got any sort of sense about it, it will have to sort of get itself battle ready, because if reform get into government in three, four years time,
02:22then, of course, they're going to come under sort of serious assault and, you know, that they will sort of do whatever they can to sort of to bring it to heel.
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