“ The BBC was cowardly, but perhaps understood better than its critics how the net is reducing the cost of complaining to zero and allowing waves of outrage to crash through cyberspace. A generation ago, protest was hard work. Organising a demonstration involved negotiating with the police, agreeing a reasonably coherent programme with allies, hiring coaches and appointing stewards. Even running a write-in campaign necessitated persuading people to take the time to draft letters and post them. A few hundred complaints was an impressive total in the circumstances.
