If funds aren't ring-fenced in some way, it's way too easy for a political party to threaten that funding in return for favourable news coverage. And it would m

If funds aren't ring-fenced in some way, it's way too easy for a political party to threaten that funding in return for favourable news coverage. And it would make the BBC vulnerable to the classic libertarian trick they are trying to play with the NHS: * Cut funding for a public service * Wait for the quality of that service to inevitably go down * Say that it's terrible due to needless government bureaucracy * Privatise it