Should the BBC dumb down?

The BBC came in for some varied comment over the weekend.

Starting with the news that it and Sky had lost the rights to broadcast FA Cup football,the Independent on Saturday dedicated its front page to the story,suggesting that

Football's leading television analysts Gary Lineker and
Alan Hansen may have joked and criticised their way out of the highest profiles
in sports broadcasting.

An early warning came when Barwick attacked Lineker,
Hansen and their new sidekick Alan Shearer for a "locker-room mentality" which
created too much freewheeling and aggressive criticism of the England coach
Steve McClaren and his currently under-performing team of superstars.
The
host broadcaster had, it seems, treated the product with a little too much
irreverence: too many double-takes by the laconic Lineker, too many critical
tablets of stone being brought down from the moutain top by Hansen. One source
close to the negotiating process said: "Barwick made it clear that the FA had a
problem with the tone of the BBC analysis and the inference was made that this
could be a problem in the negotiations."

Dumbing down it seems was to blame and the Sunday Telegraph continued that theme.

BBC approves 'dumbing down' at expense of current affairs

"

Lord Reith said its mission was to "inform, educate and
entertain". Those who have succeeded the BBC's founding father, however, appear
intent on concentrating solely on entertainment, in a shameless pursuit of
ratings success.
Senior BBC bosses think that their current affairs
programmes, including the award-winning Panorama, are too dull and serious.
Instead, they want less serious shows which, they believe, will appeal to
younger viewers.
The drive towards entertainment is borne out by figures
showing that current affairs output has fallen to its lowest peak-time level in
more than half a century."

A different take though today in the Daily version

Executives at the corporation have always denied that
it is a bastion of the liberal elite, pandering to the young, upmarket and
metropolitan.
But now they are secretly conceding there may be some
truth in the accusations and are drawing up plans to make programmes more
populist.

The review ordered by Mark Thompson finds that lower income families are less well served that those at the weathier end.But as the paper points out

If BBC1 is too upmarket, then that strategy is working well. BBC1 is the
only terrestrial channel that has held its audience share since this time last
year. ITV1 has lost one in 20 viewers over the last 12 months, but not because
it is too upmarket.
It's important for BBC1 to achieve big ratings. More challenging programmes
such as Planet Earth, which pulled in nine million viewers last year, would
struggle if Doctor Who or Strictly Come Dancing were not so popular.