In the aftermath of the London Olympics three months ago, there was a clearer consensus in favour of the BBC than at any time in the past 30 years. The financial crisis had freed the BBC from the neoliberal swaddle in which its critics sought to wrap it. No longer did it have to justify itself merely as the solution to failures in a market. Instead, the BBC could make its own case: that it made great programmes more widely available and less expensively than could be done via any other funding method. The Olympics made this theoretical argument real. The Leveson inquiry reminded Britain of the benefits of an impartial part of the media.
3個月前,倫敦奧運會結束后,人們達成更加明顯的一致,對英國廣播公司(BBC)的喜愛超過以往30年的任何時刻。金融危機使BBC擺脫了新自由主義的束縛,而其批評者一直試圖用新自由主義淹沒BBC。它不必再為自己辯護,證明自己不僅僅是市場失靈情況下的解決方案。相反,BBC可以證明自己的價值:BBC以更低的成本讓其優秀節目為更多的人看到,通過任何其他籌資方式都做不到這樣。奧運會使這一理論上的論據成真。萊韋森調查(Leveson Inquiry)使英國人意識到媒體公正性的重要性。