30.10.08
Bland and Toss
At the risk of boring the pants of you any more I just must witter briefly about the major news story of the week.
It seems that 2 idiots on the radio said some stupid things on their radio show.
And this is the single biggest news item of the week.
First off, they’re idiots.
Second off, there should be no second part.
That should have been it. 2 people complained on the night. The presenters apologised to the “victim” and the guy sweetly has accepted the apology and wants the story to go away.
But no it isn’t going away. And why?
Apparently people are offended. People who would never in their lives listen to one of these radio shows. Ever.
I think the only proper offended people are the recipient of the message and his granddaughter (who incidentally seems to be rather easily offendable for a goth porn model).
So why all the hooha?
Is it real offence on the part of the media? Err no.
Is it grandstanding to try and demonstrate who’s most moral? No.
What it seems like now is yet another bandwagon jumping onto something that takes the mind off the shitter news that seems to be doing the rounds re recession etc… But I’m not even sure that’s what has led the media flurry of ludicrous over-reaction.
What concerns me is that the anti-beeb forces have got a nice new stick to beat the BBC with. There is a sizeable bunch of idiots people who seem to think that the BBC would be better if it had to have adverts, telly shows as crappy as ITVs and radio of the quality of local independent stations. For these people the licence fee is just another tax (technically it is I suppose). The fact of a tax over-rides any thought that there’s one hell of a benefit to having the BBC as it is. Namely that it’s a shed load better than any other broadcaster.
BBC4 is astonishingly good at times. 3 can be flushed away but 1 and 2 remain as good as ever. And radio 4 is untouchable re intelligent programming.
For some people the thought that they have to pay all the time means that they should be able to watch or listen to any programme and a: not be offended by it; and b: enjoy it.
So many things are wrong with that attitude. By that measure I want to see horror fillums and drama that shows the reality of life with kids TV involving swearing, underage sex, drugs and mindless violence. It offends me that we have to sanitise what goes out over the airwaves. Where’s my rebate and stick to whack the DG with?
Do these people seriously think that a non-public BBC will offend less? I think Channel 4 gives the lie to that idea. So what do they do next? Censorship? Yet more restrictions in the guise of “protecting the public”?
For the record I think that’s rubbish. The real point is this:
The tories had a spokesman on the radio yesterday insisting with a straight face that the DG should resign over this.
This concerns me as the tories have always had a faction that wants to get the BBC privatised. You’d think that the fact that every other privatisation has failed spectacularly (apart from maybe BT) doesn’t seem to deter them.
They’ll likely make the next government too. So are the days of a decent BBC on the wane? Let’s hope not.
And just to repeat. Brand and Ross are dicks but this reaction is ridiculous. There is actual news happening in the world. Can we hear about that instead please?
Jay said,
October 30, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Hi Al,
Lots of good stuff there, not all of which I agree with, but well thought through nevertheless. But I want to raise a couple of points :-
1. I understand your grievance that a spat has blown out of all proportion, but to therefore wish it away is naive. It was an old story (about a week old) when the Daily Nazi Mail picked it up and ran with it, but that doesn’t alter the fact that it became a media event, at which point there was no fucking way the genie was going back in the bottle. That’s the nature of the minority of ishoos that come to wider public attention. It ain’t a great system I grant you, but that’s the way it is. The story is not now just Brand/Ross/Sach, but Brand/Ross/Sachs/The hand wringing public. Which is an entirely different kettle of fish.
2. Citing Channel Four as a comparison to the Beeb is an interesting and reasonably obvious choice, but C4 is owned and effectively governed by just the same people as the Beeb - the gummint. C4 has always had a public service charter, or sorts, but it is owned by you and me and has a remit to produce the kind of programmes that the Beeb simply couldn’t when C4 received it’s charter way back in, er, ‘81?
Funny old world, what what?
–
Jay
alby said,
October 30, 2008 at 10:53 pm
I’m not so much wishing it away as bemoaning that it’s bog all to do with what the whingers say it’s about. It’s the sheer bare-facedness of the complainers (the ones with some sort of clout, not the plebs) that offends me.
It seems clear that it’s an anti-BBC thing rather than a pro-morals thing. I just wish they’d come clean about it.
I did pick C4 as it was obvious. I know there’s a public charter to it, same as ITV has certain public broadcasting responsibilities. But it was the only channel I could think of beyond the beeb that shows interesting programmes that aren’t all repeats or bought in foreign stuff.