“Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.”
? George Orwell
In the late ?90s, I lived in Northern Ireland and England and did a lot of work for the BBC. So it?s with both surprise and growing anger that I find out that it may be the real victim of the Hutton Inquiry.
This latest attack on the institution that many British lovingly (and venomously) call Auntie goes much deeper than misreported facts or the death of a renowned scientist. It is clearly another attack from private interests for control of the public airwaves. That is why I?ve added the ?I believe in the BBC? logo to this site and my support to saving the BBC.
A few weeks ago, I linked to Dave Pollard?s great post on the privatisation of what is essentially something that we all own: radio and television airwaves. The fight of the private to control the public doesn?t stop with traditional media. There is a similar battle is going on for the right to control another public domain: the protocols that have come to be known as the Internet.
Some say that we live in a media-saturated world, but I think it?s more accurate to say that the media IS our world. The airwaves belong to the public, and private broadcasters must seek permission from government agencies for a licence to use these public airwaves. So, too must the public broadcasters, like the BBC and the CBC, here in Canada.
But what the private media cannot stand, is the government funding given to these public broadcasters ? ?unfair treatment? they cry, ?level playing field? they shriek. Viewers in the U.K. pay a ?TV License?, which give them the right to own and watch TV. This money is then given to the BBC who use the money to create some of the best programming in the world ? all of it without a single advertisement for an SUV, a dishcloth filled with soap or a horse farting in a woman?s face. This must not change.
Public broadcasting, like democracy, is not as secure as we like to think. It must be protected, fought for, decently funded, and remain commercial free.
If you want to support the BBC on your blog, visit the I Believe in the BBC page at Bloggerheads.
