An interesting article this mornng from the Telegraph. Among other things, the writer, Janet Daley, points up the prevailing attitude at the BBC:
What is most disturbing about encounters with BBC current affairs people is not that one has disagreements with them, but that they regard their own quite narrow frame of reference as the only rational one. …..There isn’t their opinion and your opinion: there is their opinion and you’re insane…….. As far as the BBC is concerned, the notion that freeing markets might produce more equitable and beneficial circumstances for more people more of the time is simply off the register: it is not just wrong; it is crazy and malign…… Since the toppling of Saddam, the amount of airtime that has been given to the question of whether the Government had sufficient evidence of WMD has been far, far greater than that given to the almost daily discovery of hideous mass graves in Iraq that give another kind of credence to the war effort. That is the BBC’s chosen priority.
Hmmm. Not unlike the Times. She goes in to raise what seems to me a question that’s been raised here recently:
….should the BBC, which has a virtual monopoly on serious news and current affairs coverage, the budget of a small country and enormous influence on the democratic process, be setting the parameters of reasonable political opinion in such a pre-determined and partial way?
Here in the States, that question has been partially answered by Fox News and others who have been gaining in popularity at levels the leftist outlets can only have wet dreams about. Which, in turn explains the visceral behavior of leftists when the subject of those news outlets comes up; They understand that for the first time in several decades, they don’t have a monopoly on the debate any longer.
Strongly suggested reading. Particularly, those of you in Canada and here in the States, who think CBC/PBS/NPR/CPB etc aren’t leaning left along with their commerical cousins, CBS/CNN/ABC/NBC.
Tags: BitsBlog
