A new technical document from Ofcom has introduced the ability for the BBC to mark its own homework. All while it can go about hammering GB News…
Buried in its 11 May consultation response on assessing changes to the BBC’s public services, the internet/broadcast regulator has reserved the right to skip a full competition assessment of BBC changes if it judges it lacks the resources to do one:
“There may be times where, in line with our administrative priorities, we will need to consider whether we have the resources needed to conduct a competition assessment.”
Ofcom’s headcount has grown from 1,483 to 1,608 full-time equivalents between 2023-24 and 2024-25. On the very same day as publishing the document, Ofcom found the bandwidth to reopen a GB News investigation it had already cleared over a re-run of a Bev Turner – Trump interview aired twelve hours later on a different show. If Ofcom spent less time bowing to anti-GB News activists maybe it could find the time to scrutinise the BBC…
Lord Michael Grade, recently-departed Ofcom chairman, said anti-GB News critics are “embarrassed by the fact that there is a news organisation that has a different news agenda to them, that speaks to the agenda of the majority – if you look at the polls, a large swathe of the voting population, who have no voice on the BBC. Immigration, Brexit, these are all issues that don’t get the weight on the BBC, or haven’t been able to, that GB News will give, so what’s the problem?” Quite…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”