Should the BBC license be mandatory?

Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: Should the BBC license be mandatory?
Position‹2 of 2: No, the license should not be mandatory
Argument‹4 of 7›: The BBC Trust cannot be trusted

The BBC Trust, which receives the license fees, has proven it cannot be trusted with the responsibility.

The argument

Supporters of this position argue that a payment enforced by law can only be justified if the body receiving it is subject to effective accountability, and that in this case the mechanism meant to provide that accountability failed. The BBC Trust was originally established as a regulator that was supposed to hold the organisation to account. The Jimmy Savile crisis, on this account, showed that it could not be trusted to handle sensitive matters: rather than acting independently, the Trust was heavily influenced by BBC management and worked to cover up the extent of Savile's abuse. A regulator captured by the institution it is meant to police, proponents argue, supplies the appearance of oversight while removing its substance. A second episode is offered as evidence of the same disposition. The Trust engaged in a £450,000 payoff to the former BBC director-general George Entwistle, double the figure it was contractually obliged to pay out. Entwistle had held the job for only 54 days before being forced to resign over a Newsnight programme that made false accusations of paedophilia against Lord McAlpine, a former senior Conservative politician. Supporters treat the excess payment as telling: money that licence payers had no choice but to provide was used to ease the departure of an executive after a serious editorial failure, and it was paid beyond anything a contract required. The conclusion drawn concerns compulsion rather than broadcasting. If the guardian of the licence fee protects the broadcaster instead of the public, then those compelled to pay have no reliable means of redress when the organisation errs. On that basis proponents hold that the BBC Trust cannot be trusted, and that the licence should not be mandatory.

Context

The BBC Trust is the organization that receives the license fee revenue.

Premises

[P1]The BBC Trust was created to hold the organisation to account, yet the Jimmy Savile crisis showed it was heavily influenced by BBC management and helped cover up the extent of the abuse. [P2] The Trust also paid former director-general George Entwistle a £450,000 payoff — double its contractual obligation — after only 54 days, following a false Newsnight paedophilia accusation against Lord McAlpine. [C] Therefore, the BBC Trust cannot be trusted, so the licence should not be mandatory.

Counter-arguments

The trust has proven several times that it is willing to break with BBC management over high-profile decisions. In 2010 it rejected the attempts from BBC management to close its six music digital radio stations.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] The BBC Trust can be trusted with the money.