[bbc] The Reith Lectures 2004 — the BBC is releasing the 2004 Reith Lectures as DRM-Less MP3 Files. This year’s lecturer is Wole Soyinka discussing “The Climate of Fear”. [via plasticbag.org]

» The Changing Mask of Fear — download the first lecture as an MP3 file.

» BBC releases Reith Lectures online as MP3s(es) — Tom Coates on the release of the MP3’s … ‘Hopefully it’s the first open distribution of many programmes of this kind – enlightening, significant and weighty pieces of work that actually have the potential to make the world a better place – available for free from the BBC.’

[bbc] Alastair Campbell’s Wheel of Retribution — a little bit out of date but fun (especially if you work at the BBC) … ‘Whip… John Humprhys.’ [via Blah Blah Flowers]

[bbc] The Death of Reith — Scary Duck on working for the BBC … ‘Greg (we always called him that, bless him) may have come across as-too-matey-by half with his jacket slung over his shoulder, but he cared about the corporation from top to bottom, and wasn’t afraid to make unpopular decisions. The sale of BBC Technology killed of the illusion of St Greg in some quarters, as did the outsourcing of property management and the construction of the Grey Lubyanka in White City, where jobs would mysteriously disappear en route from other locations.’

[internet] Dyke to open up BBC Archive … ‘Mr Dyke said on Sunday that everyone would in future be able to download BBC radio and TV programmes from the internet. The service, the BBC Creative Archive, would be free and available to everyone, as long as they were not intending to use the material for commercial purposes, Mr Dyke added. ‘ [Comment from: Metafilter, Slashdot, Oblomovka]

[blogs] Cory Doctorow on the Today Programme — one of the authors of Boing Boing was interviewed on Radio 4 this morning.

[war] Northern Iraq Weblog — BBC News reporter Stuart Hughes has been recovering and updating his weblog after having his foot amputated following being injured by a landmine in Iraq … ‘I’ve been avoiding using one word until now because it scares me but I think now’s the time to say it. Amputation. It’s such a brutal word, conjuring up images of below-deck surgery in blood-spattered operating theatres on navy tallships. But that’s what’s happened to me and now it’s over it doesn’t seem so bad. Rather than months of hobbling around on crutches and scores of slow and painful operations, hopefully it means a swift return to normality.’ [Related: Iraq Journalist’s Leg Amputated]

[war] Northern Iraq Weblog — BBC Reporter Stuart Hughes on-the-spot blog from Iraq … ‘We were woken by the News Desk at 0730 and for the next 8 hours we barely drew breath. The Rolling News Monster had us in its grip and wasn’t going to let us go. Each hour was filled with lives for World TV, News 24, World Service, Radio 4, Five Live, you name it, interspersed with the odd rushed phone call to find out what was actually happening.’ [via Bowblog]

[war] BBC War [B]log links …

• 22 March – Pushing … Rageh Omar in Baghdad: ‘Every sign here is that Saddam Hussein and his commanders have escaped attempts to assassinate them, despite persistent rumours from London and Washington ‘
• 21 March – Attacks … Gavin Hewitt in Southern Iraq: ‘In the last few minutes we just crossed over the Basra-Baghdad highway. We’ve had several bizarre incidents in the last few minutes of drivers on the highway completely unaware that American armour may be this far north, stopping their vehicles in utter amazement as we crossed the highway.’
• 20 March – At War … Nick Bryant in Washington: ‘The White House is trying hard to show that things are calm. They’ve put a lot of effort into making the President’s day seem effortless.’

[war] Reporters’ Log — BBC News Correspondents are [b]logging the War … ‘The overwhelming feeling among the British troops is a wish to get on with the job they have been sent here to do. As one British commander put it: “It will be tea and medals in Baghdad in a few days time.” And no-one really wants to contemplate the alternative.’ [via Grayblog]

[radio] Northern Lights — BBC Radio 4 are broadcasting a dramatisation of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman over the next three weeks… Terrance Stamp is playing Lord Asriel. [via I Love Everything]

[blogs] Biased BBC — a weblog from Natalie Solent… ‘exposing the left-wing agenda of the British Broadcasting Corporation’.

[blogs] Scotblog — A real, live BBC Scotland Blog from Martin at the Copydesk … ‘Wish you were here, blah, blah, blah… What exactly is the point of postcards?’

[tv] A couple of reports on the current position of the BBC …

• Gentle giant? ‘…the corporation is a many-tentacled monster that would be unrecognisable to wireless entrepreneurs of the early 1920s. It has staff numbers that would dwarf many a small city and an annual income of £3.16bn that, if it was a country, would make it a rival of the GDP of Iceland or Mongolia. Plainly the BBC has more global clout than either country. There is no 24-hour rolling news network pumped out from Rekyavik or Ulan Bator. The BBC has more world-class orchestras than either Iceland or Mongolia, and possibly both. Neither has a publicly funded news website that can draw on the journalistic talents of one of the biggest multimedia news-gathering teams in the world. Neither has a film industry that would bear comparison with BBC Films. Neither has Nicky Campbell enjoining people to “join the nation’s conversation” on Radio 5 Live or Anne Robinson debasing that conversation by means of scripted insults on a vile, though extremely popular, game show.’
• Boxing clever: Greg’s debt to John … ‘The air of despair that descended during the dark days of John Birt has been lifted; where once there was discord, Saint Dyke of White City sows harmony. “I remember going to my first meeting of the executive committee and hearing laughter coming out of the door,” cooed the corporation’s new director of television, Jana Bennett, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph last week. “I assumed I was in the wrong place. But when I peeked in, there they all were – and they were actually enjoying themselves.” Over at doom-laden ITV, the only sounds are the scraping of chins dragging along the floor and the occasional splash as another executive jumps ship. At Channel 4 it’s worse: hundreds are waiting to pick up their P45s as Mark Thompson claws back the excesses of recent years.’

[web] The Guardian’s On-Line Section takes a look at what is available on the BBC’s Websites … ‘Every night in the UK, the dwindling number of executives left in the online content business must go to sleep cursing the BBC. Rather than worry about plummeting advertising revenues and failing strategic partnerships, the Beeb is in the enviable financial position of letting the licence fee take the strain, and now spends around £60m annually on its online content, all based around its home page. So what exactly do we get for our money?’

[tv] It’s Really Happening — what it’s like at Greg Dyke’s BBC … ‘…executives trip gaily (in the old sense) down the rose-petal-strewn boulevards of Television Centre, chatting amiably to programme-makers they’ve actually met before, and insisting that everyone calls them by their first name. They still go to pointless meetings, as we all do. But now they can wave “cut the crap” cards so it’s pointless but fun.’

[bomb] Metafilter discusses the bomb at the BBC (with a contribution from me). There are also some postings from Dave at Brainsluice and Vaughan at Wherever You Are. From my posting on Metafilter: ‘As a friend of mine said about a previous bomb explosion in London… ‘This is far to close to home’. I use the White City Tube station and main entrance to BBC Television Centre every weekday to get into work … the servers I administer are about 5 floors above where the bomb exploded… ‘

[radio] Media Guardian takes a look behind the scenes on the BBC’s Today Programme. ‘The corporation has whole armies of executives whose job it is to fret about the output. One old hand said to me, after a piece I did about Mo Mowlam and her problems with Downing Street: “Very interesting. Very controversial. Are you sure you got your facts right?” They worry about politicians. But they particularly worry about the press. Each morning, huge piles of cuttings arrive for each executive, containing every mention of the BBC over the previous 24 hours. Papers are regarded with unhealthy reverence. They are seen as founts of all wisdom when they break political stories and, far too often, criticism of the corporation leads to anguished meetings.’

[radio] Guardian Unlimited covers the Today Programme’s new website and webcam…. ‘The presenters will slouch and sometimes slurp; they will gesticulate angrily towards the unseen producers on occasion. They will browse the newspapers. If you want a slick, professional television operation, then watch Jeremy and Sophie on the new BBC1 Breakfast show. Today may be live online – four days and counting; no catastrophes as yet – but it’s still a radio programme, and so it will remain.’ [Related Links: Today’s Website]

[letter from america] Alistair Campbell has been covering America for the BBC since 1946… Here’s a classic letter from 1968 — an eyewitness account of the assasination of Bobby Kennedy… ‘Last Tuesday night, for the first time in thirty years, I found myself by one casual chance in a thousand, on hand in a small, narrow serving pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, a place that I suppose will never be wiped out of my memory: a sinister alley, a Roman circus run amok, and a charnel house. It would be quite false to say, as I should truly like to say, that I’m sorry I was there. It’s more complicated than that.’

[beeb.com] According to my flatmate [who wants me to link to this and this for some reason] the BBC has released it’s first commercial television advertisement… it’s advertising beeb.com a internet shopping site.

[referer log] Looking for Charlie Dimmock naked? I can’t help you… but the BBC does has some naked Gardeners’ Question Time action right here…

[bbc] Is the BBC doing to well in New Media? “It is not hard to see why privately funded internet publishers are afraid of the BBC moving into their patch. While the start-ups struggle to raise finance and discover the so-far elusive revenue streams, the BBC has no such concerns. BBC Online’s £32m budget last year came from the licence fee, and the site does not carry advertising or sponsorship.”

[bbc] What kind of person would download and install a Charlie Dimmock screensaver on their computer?

[bbc] Greg Dyke gets rid of expensive cheese from the BBC Menu. “Dyke’s decrees have been dismissed as daft penny-pinching by staff. ‘When John Birt ran the show there was always cheese – and biscuits – and croissants at meetings,’ one said. ‘What’s next? Will we soon be forced to bring in Thermos flasks of lukewarm tea and garibaldis wrapped in tin foil to keep us going?'” [I am not the most unbiased weblogger on this matter — I work for the BBC — but is this story news? And I’ve got to say that the quote above sounds like utter nonsense to me…. Did a real person say that? It sounds like somebody taking the piss to me…]

[BBC] According to newsUnlimited it’s night of the long knives time at the BBC [Text Only]. There’s also another report concentrating on Greg Dyke’s hatred of hierarchy. It’s time to admit that I work for BBC Resources so am not exactly uninterested in this story!

[Telly] Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) retuns on BBC1 tonight. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while…. You can find Trailers here.