[chrisherald]

Yes, as you say, it's a long-term pattern of hostile under-investment. Cuts to local radio and cuts to various worldwide radio outlets are among the most devastating changes.

If the value of the BBC as a PSB (not just for the benefit of the UK, mind you) was well understood by those with authority to impact trajectory (and then, assuming no hostilities), these vital components of journalistic integrity (and tools for fighting a global democratic deficit) would not be sacrificed for the sake of other entertainment-focused outlets (in their full form).

I'd rather the BBC become like America's PBS (less appealing as a national PSB and as an entertainment outlet) than lose it's capacity as a global voice, a capacity built over decades. I'd rather keep Four and a single news feed with some opts but with proper teams, domestic and foreign, than the whole of BBC One and Two; buy some sports rights with the money, yes, okay, get some cheaper presenters, maybe 70 of them, and put most things on streaming and Red Button. A joke, of sorts, all this, but there's no shortage of ways to re-arrange the puzzle, but destroying capacity is the painful issue at heart. Trying to sell this as a pivot to digital is rather sinister in my view. Platforms and distribution evolve, storytelling media tooling and formats evolve, but these are changes to what we put to air, not innocently how. It's very sad.

This is among the first time I've taken to expressing this in writing, so I'm sorry to have possibly burdened the forum here with the verbosity of my grieving process. I know much of my view on this will already have been expressed here and understood by others. It does take some getting used to, when a great cultural institution is (further) relegated to the dustbin and most of us are powerless to impact the decline.