Louis Theroux Calls Out “Right-Skewing Press” & “Vested Interests” Who Want To Defund The BBC – Edinburgh TV Festival

deadline.com:

The morning after his MacTaggart, Louis Theroux has called out the “right-skewing press” and “vested interests” who want to defund the BBC.

The celebrated documentarian delivered the annual address last night, during which he said an “atmosphere of anxiety” is leading to “less confident filmmaking,” while he floated that the BBC is at times overly worried of “causing offence.” Reflecting during his post-MacTaggart session Thursday morning, Theroux said his lecture had “very little that was critical about the BBC” but he expected the press to focus on “one or two small qualifications.” “I wouldn’t be surprised if the anti-BBC stuff is out there,” he added, in conversation with Mobeen Azhar.

He floated that there were “three audiences” for his MacTaggart: “one in the room, some in the wider community and then the audience in the press, many of whom are right-skewing press looking for anything they can use to defund the BBC.” Theroux defended the public broadcaster, calling out those who believe that “New Broadcasting House program makers are the enemy.” “It’s possible that the licence fee is on some sort of managed decline,” he said. “There are vested interests lobbying and campaigning for a ‘Brexit from the licence fee ‘.” Instead, Theroux urged te audience to “spread the word and advocate for the BBC.” “Streamers aren’t doing local news or Britain-focused doc making,” he said. “Netflix is amazing but it is a transnational corporation with a global outlook that is not telling me much about what is happening in London.” Delivering his worst-case scenarion for the direction of the media landscape, Theroux described an “increasingly siloed, ultra-libertarian vision that has a surface appeal.” “There would be endless