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It's taken nearly a fortnight, but the BBC has now responded more fully to James Murdoch's assault.
(See earlier blog for details and analysis http://www.centreforjournalism.co.uk/blogs/james-murdoch-analysis-bbc-li... )
BBC Director General Mark Thompson emailed the corporation's staff; "The most important thing to say about Murdoch's lecture and about many of the recent attacks on the BBC, is that they are desperately out of touch with what audiences themselves are telling us".
Thompson is basically saying, "We make some good programmes and there are some people out there who tell us they like some of what we do".
I was left pondering whether Thompson's remarks really were the best the BBC could offer as a defence of its position.
Thompson's comments are exactly the same thing my mother in law says whenever the subject of the BBC comes up, "Oh I do like the Archers and I saw a wonderful programme about wildlife on BBC2 last night. Isn't the BBC wonderful! Mind you, isn't it awful what Jonathan Ross did and it's shocking how much they're paying him isn't it"!
So I'm not sure how far the debate is moved-on by simply pointing out, "Sometimes we do good things with the licence fee money".
This year the BBC will receive £3.6 billion guaranteed income (paid by you and me). I'll write that out again because it's a very big figure to comprehend; £3,600,000,000.00
Stop reading for a moment, close your eyes and think what you personally could do with that amount of money. You can't can you? It's too huge an amount to properly understand.
If you were given that amount of money and told to set up an organisation to make video, radio and online content, the chances are some of what you created would be pretty good and some people out there would tell you they liked what you were doing. The chances are you'd also make some mistakes, or turn out some programmes which some people wouldn't like.
Mark Thompson's "desperately out of touch" remarks made a good headline in the newspapers yesterday, but add little to the big BBC debate.
James Murdoch is not an impartial observer, but his lecture struck a chord with many. He highlighted the fact that currently the BBC alone decides what its mission is and how much of our money it requires to carry it out.
Sooner or later the public and the government will have to decide whether it's Murdoch or Thompson who's really "out of touch".
Graham Majin is a former BBC Assistant Editor. He's currently Head of Video Marketing and Video Production at Kent video production company www.kershmedia.co.uk and www.kwikvid.com
James Murdoch has performed a public service by igniting a crucial debate. After eighty years as a beacon of excellence that has nurtured our culture and democracy, the BBC has become so large that it is fouling the nest. Mark Thompson has never properly questioned the crude logic that says 'the bbc receives income from every household, therefore it must supply something for everyone.' He must. By competing in every sector of the media market his BBC has become a market distorter that damages the very diversity it was created to enhance. This is bad for democracy and bad for culture. The BBC must survive and it must be strong, but it must find a way to achieve those ambitions without harming its rivals. That challenge has been apparent to independent observers for ten years. It is high time the DG took it seriously. It is a defining issue for British journalism. Mark Thompson was a very good journalist. He must remind himself how much he once valued the journalism produced by independent newspapers and broadcasters the modern BBC is suffocating. Leadership is required.