Paw conduct? Blue Peter cats Socks and Cookie unwind after Kittygate. Photograph: BBC/PA
You may have noticed that the BBC has been beating itself up recently. Or, more to the point, countless others have been lining up to take their turn in beating the BBC up. Fake shots of nodding interviewers, premium rate phone-ins, Blue Peter's Kittygate scandal: what would Lord Reith make of it all?
I think it's safe to say he'd be appalled. But not necessarily by any of the editing techniques that are now being held up as grand subterfuge (talking of which - look at this footage of David Frost's classic Richard Nixon interview. Did you see it? Three minutes seven seconds in - a blatant cutaway of Frost deep in thought!) No. What I think Lord Reith would be more concerned with is the BBC's pandering to public opinion. The corporation he helped to mould would have had no truck with committee by focus group. It should be Aunty Beeb's job to tell us what's good for us, because we don't know. We're not experts; we're viewers. But the TV expert is now an ever dwindling species.
Now, everywhere we look in public life - from the government to our subsidised TV channels - experts have been replaced by the average man in the street. Consensus is deemed more important than original, challenging thought. They may seem unlikely bedfellows, but one can't help thinking Lord Reith would side with former Sex Pistol John Lydon, who sneered about the opinions of "the man on the street".
