A taxpayer funded state broadcasting service does not need to sell its product in the same way so therefore it should set its editorial at a higher level.........
Well, if only KS! The Beeb is not taxpayer funded, but funded by a compulsory impost on "all Apparatus capable of receiving a TV signal", or words to that effect. Thus you may never watch the beeb, but you'll damn well pay for it or end up with a criminal record! It is not a state broadcasting service, nor of course should it be, but at least then it would reflect government attitudes, just as commercial TV reflects (broadly) the ethos of advertisers. The Beeb has the luxury of being answerable to no-one in reality, a vacuum which the special interests brigade that infest its ranks have filled with their own mantras. It may have been appropriate in the paternal era of Lord Reith to decide what is best for the nation, it is downright creepy now and accounts for much of the PC "new think" that is fast bringing a once great nation to be seen as the weirdo of the world.