The Tories better keep their hands off my Auntie
I'm not going to rake over the burning embers of a mild socialist uprising. Nor will I point at Tory voters chastising them for selling our NHS. As Doris Day said, what will be will be and I just hope the Tories are ready for it. The thing that I'm most dismayed about isn't the abolition of the Human Rights Law (but I might get onto this later), it's the threat that newly-appointed Culture Secretary John Whittingdale may get rid of the License Fee.
This man - a homophobe, nonetheless - is opposed to the License Fee. He's likened it to the Poll Tax. Apart from there was no benefit to the Poll Tax. The benefit of the BBC is felt worldwide.
Abolishing the License Fee is catastrophic and this is why:
1. The BBC is an unbiased media outlet that is free from political and corporate constraints. This makes it a modern utopia for both story and news-telling.
2. The BBC has the most superior programming to any other channel in the world. The broadcaster made household names of Jim Broadbent, Timothy Spall, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cillian Murphy, Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman, Colin Firth, Jamie Dornan, David Oyelowo, Russell Brand, Damien Lewis and Idris Elba. (I've just realised there are no women on this list, I'll get back to this later also).
3. The BBC science and nature programmes are unrivalled, step forward Stephen Hawking, Brian Cox, Patrick Moore, Richard Attenborough, Simon Reeve and crew from Human Planet and Monsoon.
4. 100% of the musicians in this country would be nowhere without BBC Introducing, music programming and the plethora of radio stations.
5. BBC documentaries are a benchmark for all history, music, art and travel programming.
6. The BBC is a digital leader, were they not the first with iPlayer? Their website, apps and social media platforms are trailblazing in the digital space.
7. The BBC leads in comedy where others fall flat. I'm not just talking historically with Only Fools, Rising Damp, The Good Life and Fawlty Towers - which have stood the test of time - but also The Mighty Boosh, League of Gentlemen, The Office, The Thick Of It and Miranda.
8. Without the BBC, we wouldn't have Charlie Brooker, Chris Morris, Adam Curtis or Stewart Lee. This makes me sad.
9. The BBC is solely responsible for pumping culture into our homes, with reciting War & Peace on Radio 4, disseminating philosophy in History of Ideas and documentaries like Art In Three Colours.
10. The BBC started the Lonely Planet. Where would I be without it? Still wondering round Hanoi, that's where!
I've not even talked about the fact that it has a presence all over the world. That BBC resources probably help your kids pass their exams and BBC Monitoring helps in the fight against terror. What about the fact that it's a trusted news source and its archives are the envy of the media world.
I don't want the BBC to sell advertising space because I like that its programmes don't have breaks. Poldark, The Fall and Happy Valley would no way be as intense if we had to break every 10 minutes for a word from our sponsor. Homeland on Channel 4 was severely hindered by this, which is why I shall be waiting for it on Netflix from now on.
And by selling its soul to corporates, it'll become their bitch. There's a case in America where journalists from Fox uncovered that a huge pharma company was pumping hormones into milk that was harming cows and possibly having adverse affects on our health. The story was pulled as the pharma company in question threaten to cancel all its million dollars' worth of advertising from the network. After negotiation, the company agreed for the story to be aired, but with some edits. This resulted in them basically taking out all the negative stuff, leaving the journos with no story to tell.
Is this what we want from our programming? Is it not bad enough that corporates are raping us and our environment, we now want them to control the news! So we're turned into homogenised lemmings that do as we're told. The peasants can't revolt, it'll affect KPIs and share price.
I would happily pay double for the BBC to be free from corporate and political influence. I would actually like the BBC to be braver in its news-telling, a la Al-Jazeera - not become a puppet for CEOs to pimp their wares, just like the politicians have become.
It's a bit rich to talk about how dreadful politicians are when we're planning on doing the exact same thing to the institution that is the epitome of Britishness, the BBC.
First published 12/05/2015
This man - a homophobe, nonetheless - is opposed to the License Fee. He's likened it to the Poll Tax. Apart from there was no benefit to the Poll Tax. The benefit of the BBC is felt worldwide.
Abolishing the License Fee is catastrophic and this is why:
1. The BBC is an unbiased media outlet that is free from political and corporate constraints. This makes it a modern utopia for both story and news-telling.
2. The BBC has the most superior programming to any other channel in the world. The broadcaster made household names of Jim Broadbent, Timothy Spall, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cillian Murphy, Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman, Colin Firth, Jamie Dornan, David Oyelowo, Russell Brand, Damien Lewis and Idris Elba. (I've just realised there are no women on this list, I'll get back to this later also).
3. The BBC science and nature programmes are unrivalled, step forward Stephen Hawking, Brian Cox, Patrick Moore, Richard Attenborough, Simon Reeve and crew from Human Planet and Monsoon.
4. 100% of the musicians in this country would be nowhere without BBC Introducing, music programming and the plethora of radio stations.
5. BBC documentaries are a benchmark for all history, music, art and travel programming.
6. The BBC is a digital leader, were they not the first with iPlayer? Their website, apps and social media platforms are trailblazing in the digital space.
7. The BBC leads in comedy where others fall flat. I'm not just talking historically with Only Fools, Rising Damp, The Good Life and Fawlty Towers - which have stood the test of time - but also The Mighty Boosh, League of Gentlemen, The Office, The Thick Of It and Miranda.
8. Without the BBC, we wouldn't have Charlie Brooker, Chris Morris, Adam Curtis or Stewart Lee. This makes me sad.
9. The BBC is solely responsible for pumping culture into our homes, with reciting War & Peace on Radio 4, disseminating philosophy in History of Ideas and documentaries like Art In Three Colours.
10. The BBC started the Lonely Planet. Where would I be without it? Still wondering round Hanoi, that's where!
10 good reasons why the BBC should be renamed
Bloody Brilliant Corporation.
I've not even talked about the fact that it has a presence all over the world. That BBC resources probably help your kids pass their exams and BBC Monitoring helps in the fight against terror. What about the fact that it's a trusted news source and its archives are the envy of the media world.
I don't want the BBC to sell advertising space because I like that its programmes don't have breaks. Poldark, The Fall and Happy Valley would no way be as intense if we had to break every 10 minutes for a word from our sponsor. Homeland on Channel 4 was severely hindered by this, which is why I shall be waiting for it on Netflix from now on.
And by selling its soul to corporates, it'll become their bitch. There's a case in America where journalists from Fox uncovered that a huge pharma company was pumping hormones into milk that was harming cows and possibly having adverse affects on our health. The story was pulled as the pharma company in question threaten to cancel all its million dollars' worth of advertising from the network. After negotiation, the company agreed for the story to be aired, but with some edits. This resulted in them basically taking out all the negative stuff, leaving the journos with no story to tell.
Is this what we want from our programming? Is it not bad enough that corporates are raping us and our environment, we now want them to control the news! So we're turned into homogenised lemmings that do as we're told. The peasants can't revolt, it'll affect KPIs and share price.
I would happily pay double for the BBC to be free from corporate and political influence. I would actually like the BBC to be braver in its news-telling, a la Al-Jazeera - not become a puppet for CEOs to pimp their wares, just like the politicians have become.
It's a bit rich to talk about how dreadful politicians are when we're planning on doing the exact same thing to the institution that is the epitome of Britishness, the BBC.
First published 12/05/2015
Comments
Post a Comment