IN a recent debate on the financing of the BBC and free TV licences for the over-75s, Baroness Liddell said the BBC was a ''gold standard'' of journalism around the world and the BBC World Service was an essential diplomatic tool "(Scrapping free TV licence could leave elderly isolated, peer warns", The Herald, March 6). With all due respect to the Baroness, she clearly has limited experience of rival TV, radio and other media providers.
Moreover, if, as she claims, the BBC actually is ''gold standard'' then it need have no concern about transferring to funding mechanisms like that used by Netflix. The BBC has lived off its reputation for far too long.
Doug Clark, Currie.
PRESSURE to replace or provide an alternative to the national Six o’ Clock News and the 6.30 Scottish News with a Scottish Six was resisted. Scotland continued to be catered for in the same way as all the other areas of the United Kingdom, and why should it be any different?
However, a handsome concession was made. Scotland was to have a whole new channel, BBC Scotland. Including a Scottish Six? Well, no. But there was to be a brand new, hour-long news and current affairs programme – The Nine. Wow.
But wait a minute. Is nine o’ clock not the very time when all the dramas and documentaries watched by everyone who might be interested in The Nine, are on air, and not just on BBC 1, but BBC 2, STV, Channel 4 and BBC4 as well? Bad timing? Or sabotage? Being the sort of person who will watch the Six o’ Clock News and the 6.30 Scottish News you might sacrifice a new drama for the time being to sample The Nine, to be discouraged when the stories already seen at six or six-thirty are simply repeated here.
That’s not all the fault of The Nine. There are good presenters, reporters and analysts, with good original reports, but the only way to access them is to record and then cherry-pick later. Better than nothing maybe. But no substitute for a Scottish Six, which of course it was not intended to be.
Ronald MacLean, Beauly.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel