BBC director-general attacks 'relentless onslaught from the press' in staff memo

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BBC director-general Mark Thompson hit back today following James Murdoch's attack from Edinburgh and called critics 'desperately out of touch' with the corporation's audience.

The BBC has 'seen a pretty relentless onslaught from the press over the summer, culminating in

James Murdoch's MacTaggart lecture

,' Mark Thompson told staff in an internal email today.

"The most important thing to say about that lecture and about many of the recent attacks on the BBC is that they are desperately out of touch with what the audience themselves are telling us," he wrote.

He referred to an open letter to licence payers from the chairman of the BBC Trust and published today, in which Sir Michael Lyons said that new survey research commissioned by the Trust suggested the public is opposed to 'top-slicing' or seeing the BBC share its income with its commercial rivals.

Thompson wrote: "Based on emerging findings from new survey research, the Trust believes that if in future licence fee settlements there was money the BBC did not need, the public would not want it given to other media outlets.

"The Trust's research offered six possible options for what should happen to the licence fee once current spending on digital switchover is complete. Around half of those asked would prefer the licence fee to be lowered by £5.50, compared to just six per cent who wanted additional money to be spent on regional news on other channels."

Thompson used a report in the Guardian last Saturday (September 5) as evidence, he said, that there is still 'very strong public support' for the BBC. He cited that 4 out of 5 people said that the UK should be proud of the BBC and that 69 per cent agreed that the BBC was trustworthy, according to the Guardian / ICM poll.

"None of this comes as a surprise to us - our own tracking research has indicated that, at a time when public faith in many other British institutions is eroding fast, belief in the BBC is actually strengthening," he wrote in the email circulated to all BBC staff members.

But, he allowed, 'digital switchover will mean new audience needs and demands'. "[T]he fact that the public support our stand on top-slicing and reject many of the most extreme attacks on us does not mean that we should shut our ears to criticism nor that the BBC can stand still."

"The media landscape is changing beyond recognition - the old balance between the BBC and the rest of media has been upset as commercial business models are under severe pressure."

The wider economy and public finances look 'profoundly different' than they did when the corporation launched its ambitious Creative Future blueprint in 2006 , he said.

Thompson said that the corporation would continue to look to build 'an environment in which other media providers can grow and succeed and plurality can flourish.'