[Commlist] new book: The War Against the BBC

/The War Against the BBC: How an Unprecedented Combination of Hostile 
Forces Is Destroying Britain’s Greatest Cultural Institution... And Why 
You Should Care/(Penguin, 2020) by Patrick Barwise and Peter York is now 
available to inspect for use on undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

/The War Against the BBC/is the definitive (‘hair-raising’ – Polly 
Toynbee, /The Guardian/, 25.5.21) analysis of the many external 
challenges facing the Corporation. It could hardly be more relevant in 
the current climate, with the furore about the 1995 /Panorama /interview 
and subsequent cover-up; the imminent launch of GB News with an explicit 
anti-BBC, ‘anti-woke’, agenda; the government seriously proposing to 
appoint Paul Dacre, the BBC-hating former editor of the /Daily Mail/, as 
chairman of Ofcom; and further threats to the BBC’s funding, already cut 
by 30 per cent in real terms since 2010.

The book also addresses the intensifying competition for the BBC from 
broadcast and online rivals, the impact of technology trends, 
consumption trends and rising content costs, the endless attacks on the 
BBC’s impartiality, mainly by right-leaning politicians, think tanks and 
newspapers, and the wider culture war context.

This makes it indispensable reading on modules devoted to public service 
broadcasting, models of media institutions, media industries, British 
broadcasting, politics and the media, and media history.

It will also be an invaluable source for media researchers, by bringing 
together in one place much of the existing academic research on the BBC 
and public service broadcasting - which it contrasts with the widely 
reported politically-driven ‘research’ by opaquely-funded right-wing 
think tanks and sources such as News-watch.

To order an inspection copy email (academic /at/ penguinrandomhouse.co.uk) 
<mailto:(academic /at/ penguinrandomhouse.co.uk)>.

Reviews:

“This book’s urgent conclusion establishes just how much Britain stands 
to lose if the BBC as we know it falls”

/The Guardian/, Dorian Lynskey

“A ‘must’ for anyone interested in the future of what many regard as 
Britain's most important cultural institution and our greatest source of 
"soft power" on the world stage”

/The Sunday Times/, John Arlidge

“After reaching the end of the book's more than 500 pages one is left 
with two overwhelming impressions. The first is how important the BBC is 
to the healthy life of the nation and the second, how its very long-term 
survival is now in doubt after the sustained political and financial 
attacks it's suffered these past few decades ... Written with wit and 
panache ... like taking a stroll through the social and political 
history of Britain from Thatcher onwards”

/The New European/, Ivor Gaber,

“A thorough and perceptive analysis of some of the big challenges facing 
the BBC, and the malevolent and dishonest forces raging against it”

/Byline Times/, Patrick Howse

“Scrupulously researched... exposes the myths behind the onslaught. The 
idea of a ‘silent majority’ exasperated by the BBC's liberal values is 
at odds with trust ratings that put it above every other news provider”//

/The Independent/, Ian Burrell

“The value of this book is to remind us that arguments against the BBC 
are often dishonest or partial, often strongly motivated by vested 
interests - and often hope for its destruction while affecting to hope 
for its reform. It may make you, as it did me, think that in this 
accursed year there's something to be said for keeping a-hold of nurse 
in fear of finding something worse”

/UnHerd/, Sam Leith

“A frighteningly informative torrent of history, politics, global 
economics and warm sympathy”

/The Times/, Libby Purves

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