Do they really think people are that stupid?

The BBC is known for some oddities, making radio presenters wear evening dress in the early days right down to today and support for global warming and the Labour party. Still, if this is what they believe then there really is no hope for the place.

Express.

LISTENERS to BBC Radio 4 may have been confused about the time yesterday when the station’s pips machine went on the blink.
The machine uses the Greenwich Time Signal – a series of six short tones broadcast at one-second intervals to mark the start of the hour. But they failed to play at 5pm.
A BBC spokesman said Radio 4 was “aware” of the problem and was getting to the bottom of what happened.
He said: “The pips didn’t play out at the 5 hour which they usually do. We don’t know exactly why yet but are looking into it.”
They are used on several BBC stations after being introduced in 1924. On Radio 4 the pips are broadcast every hour, except for the 6pm and midnight news when the hour chimes of Big Ben, known as the “bongs”, are used instead.
The BBC discourages any other sound being broadcast at the same time as the pips, doing so is known as “crashing the pips”.

Now I'm not sure whether or not this is just the Express making a filler story, but somehow or other I very much doubt that the listeners to Radio 4 were for a moment even confused as to what time it was, the vast majority of them having clocks or watches.
So someone out there really thinks that people are stupid, and whilst some people are stupid, most are not stupid in the way that this article presumes, particularly not those who tend to listen to Radio 4. I might believe it of those who listen to Magic FM but not Radio 4 as it isn't the station of choice for the underclass.
There are times I think that dumbing down has gone too far and there are times like this which give me the evidence I need to prove that assumption.
Someone, somewhere out there believes that people not hearing the radio pips might not know what time it is, you honestly couldn't make it up.