Audience research has revealed a discontinuity between the views of BBC staff and most of its audience. Corporate political correctness, suggests an executive, may have gone too far. Out there, the people are not remotely PC. Rather, they are concerned about, ' 'stranger danger', the 'death of childhood', lack of respect in society, law and order, local poverty, debt and poor maternity care. But respondents also felt comfortable saying they did not care about Aids or Africa - highlighting a gap between local and global concerns.' What must be done? Perhaps, muses, the executive, the BBC should 'break the constraints of the PC police.'
Richard Klein, commissioning editor for documentaries, says, 'Most people at the BBC don't live lives like this but these are our licence payers. It's our job to reflect and engage.'
If Klein is being quoted correctly here, he is suffering from a degree of arrogance that would glaze over the eyes of mad King Xerxes. Note that he does not say, "Most people at the BBC don't hold these opinions...', he says they 'don't live lives like this...'. The BBC's obvious bias has never angered me as much as it does others. But, if these people really think their lives and not just their opinions are better than ours, then the problem is far worse than I realised.
Friday, October 27, 2006
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
According to the leaked notes of the BBC executives conference reported in the Mail, there is systemic Left-liberal bias at the BBC- as evidenced by its reporting on the Catholic Church (which challeges various liberal shiboleths); of Afghanistan and Iraq; or its sneering attitude towards conservatives. The problem, however, can be traced back to the Left university- from which most BBC recruits hale- and then to the (opaque) recruitment procedures within the organisation. This is then reflected in what is commissioned. Past conservative governments neglected the universities/BBC as sandpits for children while they got on with serious economic issues (trades unions). This was a major error. They need to create a wholly new range of places where conservative thought can flourish- like more thinktanks, with their own media outlets.....or just bite the bullet and end the poll tax imposed on listeners and viewers. Take a look at the chpaters on this in the excellent book Right Nation (Allen Lane).....
ReplyDeleteThe executives in the BBC are clearly deluded. That said, the general public seem pretty deluded too at the best of times. Where does it all begin and end? Mediocrity has won out it seems. It is now the baseline from which our lives rarely deviate. And of course, as someone once said, mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself. In Ireland, out state broadcaster, RTE, has been steadily and consistently dumbing down in recent years. A few months ago, it axed the last remaining arts show on radio that was broadcast when most of us are awake. Arts programmes are now on way past the bedtimes of most sane, working people. Who is driving the agenda on these things? Whether it be political correctness of the most inane sort or the fatuous type of programmes being made, there must be somebody, somewhere, hopefully in an unhappy marriage, with ugly children and chronic dandruff, that we can blame?
ReplyDeleteWell, having worked in the belly of the BBC beast, my only surprise in this report was that they'd finally twigged - I think it took an outsider from the commercial world to tell them the blindingly obvious thruth, but that's no surprise either. The corporate arrogance of the Beeb is breathtaking - internally they express a shrugging, hugely patronising contempt for their audience (who, of course, pay their salaries) and that clearly hasn't changed a bit. They're still right, we're still wrong, but they'll pretend to be a bit wrong in case our bizarre love affair with the BBC (cp the NHS) turns sour.
ReplyDeleteBitter N. Twisted
Having trouble following why Klein is arrogant. And the BBC?
ReplyDeleteJames, I think the arrogance of what the man said is that he is suggesting that somehow the people who work in the BBC, or at least those in the higher echelons, are unfamiliar with the views and lifestyles of the great unwashed masses. That is, BBC executives are superior in everyway. However, if they must, they will come down from their ivory towers and tolerate our company for a few minutes of their precious time. Although, I may have misread it.
ReplyDeleteMy reading was that Klein was pointing out that most BBC staff led middle class lives in London and the South-East - in media/politeratti circles where they simply didn't encounter the kind of problems he was talking about. I'm not sure it is fair to read an assumption of class superiority into his words.
ReplyDeleteAnyone in the BBC knows it exists in a smug guardianista consensus. The public know it too, and react accordingly. Of course the BBC should be a more representative reflection of the political views of Britain in general. My trouble with the most vociferous BBC-complainers is that their agenda is to ditch the beeb altogether. I like Sky, I watch a fair bit of it, and I enjoy many of the programmes it offers. But I don't want our media to become dominated by off the peg US programming and news which tacks to the commercial interests of some more (or less) benevalent foreign billionaire. And that's where ditching the Beeb, scrapping the licence fee etc takes us. Into a sort of murdochosphere of commercial interest elevated above all else. For all its faults the beeb is a bulwark of british culture and a first rate news organisation. Scrap it and spend the rest of your life watching Sky helicopter cam coverage of car chases in obscure US cities, masquerading as news.
I'd rather have the choice where my money goes each year. The BBC doesn't reflect my views, lifestyle or (barring a very few programs) what i want to watch. Yet I am forced to pay. If they want to add a new channel, they hike up the price, whether i want the new channel or not.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest problem is the powers they hold to force people to pay. I was renovating a new house for 3 months and so was living in it during the week after work. I didn't need a TV so didn't have one, and there is no bigger crime in this country than not have a TV.
Well Sky might be one option, but there is also the excellent FOX news.....judging from the Today programme; News at 10; Newsnight etc I am not at all persuaded that the BBC is a 'first rate news organisation'. Sure, they have first-rate reporters and specialists like Frank Gardner or Mark Urban, BUT they also have that bumptious Anglo-German americanophobe (Matt Frei) in Washington; the human duvet (extra large) John Simpson; and that smirking little Welshman who presents the ten o' clock news....oh and Squark and Mr Punch over on Newsnight. GRIM, GRIM, GRIM. Give me Paul Gigot or that O'Reilly bloke on Fox anyday.
ReplyDeleteWow -- In GB, you guys actually pay attention to who is controlling your media and what they're giving you! In the U.S., we simply let it wash over and do its work of shaping us.
ReplyDeleteYour attitudes in this thread remind me of when I lived in France and everyone knew who all the politicians were and what they were doing and saying -- this was a major topic at every meal I had with French friends. In this country, most people could not name for you who their area representatives are, much less their state senators or other congressmen. Many of us here are utterly apolitical, and maybe it's because we don't have to care: The gov. isn't going to change overnight while we're not watching (as it did so many times in France after WW II). Or maybe we're just completely apathetic until something *really* annoys us -- something that breaks into the cycle of getting and spending and working and playing.
When you see Americans finally waking up and getting mad about the government -- as you're seeing now -- a huge change is going to result from that anger. As in, a complete change of who is in charge of the gov. The first wave of that will happen in next month's local elections.
BTW, I love BBC America, simply because I love British movies and outrageous humor. I pay no attention whatsoever to the talking heads -- not yours and not ours, either.
It is right to criticise the BBC for liberal bias, but it is equally wrong to call for it to be biased to conservatives, as our anonymous contributors seem to be implying. I have watched Fox news and it seems to me to be little more than a Republican propaganda network. Journalism should be committed to uncovering the truth and at times that will mean saying things the right does not want to hear, and vice versa. Or am I just not post-modern enough?
ReplyDeleteStop with this anonymous crap. It's very impersonal. You're not living in a bloody police state. If you don't wish to use your real name, for whatever reason (perhaps for being a Fox News fan), then just make one up.
ReplyDeleteIs the Fox News comment to be taken seriously regarding it being of quality. People like Sean Hannity and Bill O Reilly?! Henry Rollins aptly describes these propagandists in the following short piece. Well worth a look, pretty blunt language.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6waWS0Y3Ubc
I'm always amazed by the ardent anti-Fox sentiments of so many of the acolytes of the path of liberalism. You do not have to watch it if you don't like it, man. If you don't watch it, there is no reason for whatever it broadcasts to affect your personal space, dude. Compare that with the true evil of the NPR or the BBC - despite their utter one sidedness, both of these suck up your money with government acquiesence, and use it in their non stop preaching whether you like it or not. These are the true "enemies of freedom", as the above linked Rollins youtube piece would put it.
ReplyDeleteThe key points about the BBC are that British people are denied a choice about the poll tax they have to pay to own a television set, and that the (self-confessed) ethos of the corporation is wildly at odds with the cultural/moral/political views of around a third of the (voting) population. Since it would be absurd for the BBC to adjust its outlook after each general election, the obvious answer is the end the license fee. To see what is wrong with the BBC watch 'Spooks'. Tonight's episode has fanatic Christians killing some Muslim preacher......as improbable a scenario in today's climate as one could imagine. Yet the writers/producers did indeed imagine it, as they have imagined all the upper class or BNP 'conspiracies' the programme has already given generous credit to. The old 'anti-fascism' line is alive and well there if nowhere else.
ReplyDeleteTo see what is wrong with the BBC watch 'Spooks'. Tonight's episode has fanatic Christians killing some Muslim preacher......as improbable a scenario in today's climate as one could imagine. Yet the writers/producers did indeed imagine it,
ReplyDeleteOh, the BBC does worse than that. I saw a programme on BBC2 the other day called 'Torchwood'. That episode had this device which allowed people to see into the future or the past and the emotions of "ghosts", which the characters used to solve a crime. That's not just improbable - it's damn-right impossible. Yet the writers/producers...