BBC faces turning point in mission as pressures bear down: N.Y. Times

Steve Erlanger of the New York Times has written an excellent piece on the BBC's situation:
The British Broadcasting Corporation is variously seen as a crown jewel of British culture, a producer of refined entertainment and reliable news coverage and as a cumbersome monolith, burdened by scandal and mismanagement.

But there is wide agreement that the BBC is at a critical moment in its nearly 94-year history. Challenged by the same forces that have upended traditional news media organizations elsewhere, including the technology-driven fracturing of its mass audiences, it faces intense budget pressures. Accused of using public funds to distort the market for programming, it is under constant assault by private-sector competitors. Criticized by some members of the governing Conservative Party as having a left-leaning institutional bias, it has been caught in political crosscurrents.
The whole story