YES IT IS TRUE. The BBC is liberal and left wing-leaning. This time poor old Ian Duncan Smith had a go at the broadcaster; or rather their economics’ editor, Stephanie Flanders for the way she interpreted the governments’ unemployment statistics.
The first thing to say is that the people will be on the side of Ms Flanders; not because of the rights and wrongs of the issue, but because Mr Duncan Smith is a member of the government – it could be any government. The people do not like politicians and would sooner believe that Hitler was a liberal than give the benefit of any doubt to any government.
I would ask Mr Duncan Smith to remember this; the BBC’s left-leaning liberal bias has the support of all the main party leaders; simply because they are themselves left-leaning liberals. It is a pity that this is the case, but that is where the politicians believe the Holy Grail of the centre ground is - as does the BBC.
Mr Duncan Smith on the other hand, like myself, sit somewhere right of centre. The BBC takes my money as it does his, but we have no choice but pay. It is, like any other tax, punishable by a stint in prison for none payment. Liberally speaking it is a violation of my human rights – but this is the elephant in the room; and no liberal wants to face up to such an inconsistency in their thinking . No other nation (outside of a failed state) allows its broadcasters to use the law in such a fashion; but when the state itself controls the broadcaster, via the amount by which the licence fee is to be set, then something is gravely wrong and needs to be dealt with.
I have no objection to any broadcaster being biased – Fox news in America is biased to the Right. There are also dozens of radio stations in America also turning out a right-wing agenda. So the BBC is by no means alone in its own particular bias. But of course, in America these right-wing broadcasters are not reliant on taxpayer’s money - unlike the BBC.
I NO LONGER TAKE seriously any attack made on the BBC by politicians; and neither does the BBC. Yet still, politicians from the right of the spectrum allow the BBC to raise their hackles and torment them into chants of bias.
Now, because of Mr Duncan Smiths’ intervention, the government has followed up with an intent. The BBC’s output during the Tory Party conference this autumn will be closely monitored by call me Dave; on penalty of - what?
The battle between the BBC and the politicians is as concurrent as Christmas. But the BBC knows that, although they, the politicians may spitefully disallow the full increase in the yearly licence fee, the BBC believes that the British public are on their side and the politicians dare not go any further.
But for how much longer can this reliance on the British public’s support be taken for granted? If the BBC is, as those who work for it believe it to be, a British institution whose popularity is as fixed on the nation’s culture as the monarchy; then why does the BBC not go it alone?
This institution has lived for decades off the sentimentality of generations of viewers and listeners. So why not give the people a choice. Instead of penalising them for none payment of their broadcasting tax. Why not let them go elsewhere and use the licence fee to select their own form of entertainment; while still remaining “popular” and solvent from the now freely given yearly subscription by those who wish to buy into the BBC?
For an institution that brags of being the finest broadcaster in the world, to then fear choice, makes me think that the BBC are far less certain than their boasts make them out to be. They fear the market place and their ability to survive within it without the need for taxation; if not; if they truly believed that they had the top hand over all other broadcasters, then they would allow people like myself to go our own way in the market place, and not threaten us with imprisonment for none payment of our broadcasting tax.
IF THE POLITICIANS were serious, especially the Tories; they would break up the BBC and set it free from their (or any other government) control. Mr Duncan Smith, as a true believer in the private sector, should be campaigning for such an outcome.
His silence on the issue of the contentious BBC interpretation of the unemployment figures would have been preferred. He should have sat back and let the corporation provide itself with enough rope to hang itself; he should have set about trying to reform this antiquated institution on the quiet, so to speak.
Yesterday in confirmation of the BBC’s bias, statistics provided through the Freedom of Information Act told us what we all suspected. The BBC buys up a quarter of the Guardian’s daily circulation. Over 50,000 copies are bought each day by the BBC. The paper’s job vacancy columns are filled with employment opportunities from the BBC.
I can remember as a member of the British Communist Party from 1972 to 1974, buying the daily Morning Star. It was as heavily subsidised by the Soviet Embassy then, as the Guardian is today by the BBC.
IF THE BBC’S PARLIAMENTARY ACCUSERS are serious about this institution, then they must act to transform it into a privately financed and truly independent broadcaster. I have heard many politicians attack the BBC but I have never heard from any of them who wished to replace it and put it on a sure footing where it can flourish through private subscription.
Until the politicians give the BBC its liberty, I will ignore the likes of Mr Duncan Smith as well as any other politician. The politicians have it in their hands to liberate the BBC from their control, and if they cannot bring this about they have no right to complain about any kind of bias.
The BBC has built up a worldwide reputation and can flourish without threats of imprisonment for those who refuse to pay the licence tax. The BBC must be set free to go it alone. The confidence is there. They believe themselves to be the best broadcaster in the world; and subscribers should be banging on the doors of Broadcasting House to subscribe.
All I want is to be allowed to make a choice in the broadcasting market by using the £149 I am being currently forced to pay to the BBC and through it the legal eye of the British government; and using it to make my own choice and decision about what I choose to watch. The BBC licence fee denies me this choice, and Ian Duncan Smith denies me this choice by his attack, not on the whole remit of the BBC institution, but by one of its mere supplicants – the BBC’s Stephanie Flanders.
No comments:
Post a Comment