Is he kidding?
Yes, and the BBC can't afford to mix journalism and the truth because that would damage their leftist, anti-western crusades.
"This is particularly so since September 11 when many U.S. networks wrapped themselves in the American flag and swapped impartiality for patriotism,"
I suppose Greg Dyke wouldn't want the Beeb to be thought of as pro-British even in the wake of a devastating terrorist attack against the UK. The fact that the BBC's coverage was disregarded by British Servicemen in the Gulf because it was so blatantly biased against them, might tell you something about how well the BBC serve the British people.
Dyke can get stuffed, the BBC's coverage was grotesquely anti-coalition and pro-Saddam. One could have been forgiven for thinking that the BBC anchormen were disappointed when the coalition finally took Baghdad without a wholesale slaughter. At least US news corporations have to take some account of their customers' interests. Thanks to the COMPULSORY LICENSE FEE the Bolshevik Broadcasting Corporation can do and say whatever fits their socialist agenda without fear of losing money. If they had to compete on a level playing field they wouldn't stand a chance.
Is he kidding?
Personally I like to watch the news without all the eye-rolling and insults and such. And I thought I'd scream if I had to hear "Saddam and his weapons of mass destruction", "liberation of the Iraqi people", and some of the other often repeated phrases and slogans over and over, thousands of more times. One night it got so bad I was thinking of ways to disable the tv without ruining it. Now that the war is over it's a LITTLE more tolerable. It almost caused me to have thoughts of divorce.
I prefer to see strait news and do the thinking for myself.
During one week of the war Fox had something like 9 of the top 10 cable shows in viewership.
CBS's and ABC's viewership actually declined and NBC's was up a miniscule 3%.
Several days later the Kuwait army said they had done it to move some vehicles across the line.
Of course that was only the first of BBC's unending litany of "objective" anti-American reporting.
Well they certainly did not, and it shows, the BBC had the most laughable, biased coverage of the war.
Since patriotism is simply "love of ones country", it really has nothing to do with true journalism. One can report the truth, the facts, both sides of the story, while still displaying love of one's country.
I think this anti-patriotism movement is just another one of the left's thrusts to tear down Western civilization.
If only they were similarly shocked when all their firearms were outlawed.
In their minds Government Monopoly is good while private enterprise is bad.
I suspect this statement is more for domestic consumption in their effort to stave off competition and to prevent the abolition of the compulsory TV licence.
5.56mm
At least the BBC viewers know how bad it really was.
Of course not.....the BBC is too busy mixing journalism and self-hatred.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/top100/story/0,10430,512789,00.html
Monday July 16, 2001 Greg Dyke
Greg Dyke: ready to lead fight for licence fee
Job: director general, BBC
Industry: broadcasting
Company income: £3bn (from licence fee, World Service direct grant, plus commercial income from BBC Worldwide and BBC Resources)
Staff: 23,640
Age: 54
Salary: £347,000. Total package including perks: £454,000. Worth: at least £6m - from sale of Granada shares
Star in: ascendant
Not only does Greg Dyke head up one of Britain's best known institutions and biggest employers, he is also custodian of arguably its most important cultural body in a rapidly changing broadcast climate.
The BBC still commands nearly a 40% share of UK TV viewing, more than 50% of radio listening, and BBC Online is one of the top 10 most visited UK websites.
Moreover, Mr Dyke controls an annual licence fee income of £2.3bn and rising that is guaranteed until the end of the current BBC charter in 2006.
It is now over a year since "citizen" Greg took over from Lord Birt. For the man on the street, the most noticeable aspect of his leadership is the radical changes to the BBC1 schedule and the loss of Match of the Day Premiership football highlights this summer.
The speed at which he managed to shift the evening news to 10pm and free up the evening slot for more drama and entertainment attests to his grip on the corporation.
However, it has also led to serious criticism that he will dumb down the schedule, ultimately moving serious documentaries and current affairs such as Panorama to BBC2 and changing the nature of BBC1 forever.
Less visibly, Mr Dyke is involved in a root and branch transformation of the corporation to prepare it for an increasingly competitive and digital broadcasting environment.
He has embarked on a ruthless cost-cutting drive designed to channel an extra £500m from administration into programme-making by 2003.
Headlines have been created by Mr Dyke's clampdown on chauffeur-driven cars and hotel bills, his £2m payoff for senior executives whose faces no longer fit and his determination to shake off the BBC's white, male, middle-class culture.
More significant are his plans to evolve the corporation's output from two-channel Auntie to "a coherent portfolio of channels" geared to different demographic audiences.
An unashamed Labour supporter, Mr Dyke used to chair the government's NHS advisory group. He still has the ear of senior politicians from Tony Blair to Gordon Brown.