I've spent the last few weeks vociferously defending the BBC to all who would hear and pointing out that the failings they are being accused of and ripping themselves to shreds over in a downward spiral of defiantly proper behaviour, are barely significant in the world of modern media. Can you hold the current corporation guilty for not acting on rumours of what a dead guy did while they were still at school?

I understand that the allegation is more to do with the Newsnight report they chose not to show but, well, haven't we just been through a phone hacking scandal? Whilst every other supposed 'news' organisation is allowed to lie, cheat, steal and decimate lives, the BBC isn't allowed to sit on a report that either might be not yet fully confirmed or might damage them? Maybe I'm cynical, having grown up in a world where organisations and those operating within them (along with politicians and, indeed, consumers) put their own well-being above anything else to the point they're happy to strip mine the world, culture and all conceivable human assets to increase profit by a couple of pence in the short term. Being that an organisation built on decency and integrity and proper behaviour can, in this age, completely self destruct when turned upon itself.

For anyone wondering why they should still pay their licence fee at this point, the true answer has nothing to do with tradition and people in glasses wanting to watch highbrow jolly-hockeysticks programming. What was meant to be a one paragraph intro has turned into a rant, so I'll leave that there and proceed to do what I intended with this piece - to slam the BBC