The great news divide

Someone needs to defend BBC digital channels against the grumpy old men

When will the grumpy old men shut up? Jeremy Paxman, John Sweeney, John Humphrys and now Richard Littlejohn, these old war horses and their sanctimonious proclamations on news and current affairs reveal just how lofty, patronising and out of touch they really are. BBC3 and BBC4 matter, especially to people like me in the 16 to 34-year-old demographic. We pay our licence fees too. We are the BBC's future and if wants to keep us, it needs to invest in us.

BBC3, particularly, deserves more - not less. It needs greater support, bigger ideas and more risky decisions to ensure that it continues to foster the best homegrown entertainment. Arguments that the commercial sector can meet these needs are disingenuous. BBC3 has a range of output, from quirky comedy to attention-grabbing factual entertainment, and it is genuinely surprising. ITV2 is trashy and obvious: plundering Closerand Heatfor ideas is hardly innovation and neither are all the spin-off shows. Meanwhile, E4, with the exception of Skins, is lagging far behind in originations, relying instead on US acquisitions and tired, dated ones such as Friendsat that. What happened to its bid to launch new faces?

One area where audiences are more than adequately served is in the genre of news. We're faced with a barrage of rolling news 24 hours a day from a vast array of channels. Then there's online news, which is where I and most of my peers get their information. We enjoy not only accessing but interacting in a world where journalists, citizen journalists and bloggers cover every angle and every viewpoint, no matter how niche. We no longer need or want to be preached to by Humphrys et al and we certainly don't want them to speak on our behalf.

Many in the TV industry use current affairs as a way of proving their intellectual prowess. How many controllers and commissioners do we see claiming they SkyPlus Channel 4 Newsand Newsnight? They rarely admit to watching what the masses watch, as if they are somehow above all that - in which case, why are they working in TV?

The BBC itself has gone eerily quiet, refusing to comment except to say that everything is under review. Many staff are warming to the idea of axing a channel, and are encouraged it was BBC Trust chairman Michael Lyons who first mooted the possibility. But shouldn't someone be defending the digital channels - at least for the sake of morale? How pleasant do you imagine it is working for BBC3 right now? Mark Thompson said the cuts would be tough, but not that we'd be on the brink of civil war!

What's ludicrous is that news and current affairs are somehow worth more than two entire channels. Someone please give these grumpy old men a nice cup of tea and tell them the world has moved on.
The Insider is a runner and TV viewer