Out with the old, back with the new
I'm afraid I have to disagree with Andrew Sullivan's take that the BBC has today reverted to "The Old Ways" because it is blaming yesterday's atrocity on the re-election of Tony Blair.
I'd say that was exactly wrong.
The BBC did indeed revert to the "Old Ways", but that was yesterday, Bomb Day, and only briefly, when it once again called terrorists Terrorists. Those are the "Old Ways" we miss - where Aunty Beeb was honest and would report all news without any self-preening political agenda. What we see today, as Harry's Place ably demonstrates, are the "New Ways" in action, where the mighty BBC, once the glory of worldwide news, prefers to play Pravda by revising its own texts. You really have to click that link to believe it.
How they must miss the Cold War, poor dears? Reminiscent of Galloway, even - that same pompous creep who recently scared some senators by talking back - how he regards the collapse of the Soviet Union as the greatest tragedy in History, or some such.
It makes me weep to see this; to see what has become of dear old Aunty. Its honesty, its lack of political agenda, its simple reporting of facts without any hint of propagandizing, these are what made the BBC of old Great and believable around the world. That they could tell a story without artifice was propaganda enough to the hidden and trodden people of the world. It was that, that plain honesty, that one time scared the Chinese: Rupert Murdoch, you ought to recall, agreed to prohibit BBC transmission through his Star Network Satellites in order to beam "I Love Lucy" to his waiting chinese audience.
It's clear to me that Beijing would have nothing to fear today, and that's shocking and sad and disgraceful.
A plague on all their blushed-out plooks.
I'd say that was exactly wrong.
The BBC did indeed revert to the "Old Ways", but that was yesterday, Bomb Day, and only briefly, when it once again called terrorists Terrorists. Those are the "Old Ways" we miss - where Aunty Beeb was honest and would report all news without any self-preening political agenda. What we see today, as Harry's Place ably demonstrates, are the "New Ways" in action, where the mighty BBC, once the glory of worldwide news, prefers to play Pravda by revising its own texts. You really have to click that link to believe it.
How they must miss the Cold War, poor dears? Reminiscent of Galloway, even - that same pompous creep who recently scared some senators by talking back - how he regards the collapse of the Soviet Union as the greatest tragedy in History, or some such.
It makes me weep to see this; to see what has become of dear old Aunty. Its honesty, its lack of political agenda, its simple reporting of facts without any hint of propagandizing, these are what made the BBC of old Great and believable around the world. That they could tell a story without artifice was propaganda enough to the hidden and trodden people of the world. It was that, that plain honesty, that one time scared the Chinese: Rupert Murdoch, you ought to recall, agreed to prohibit BBC transmission through his Star Network Satellites in order to beam "I Love Lucy" to his waiting chinese audience.
It's clear to me that Beijing would have nothing to fear today, and that's shocking and sad and disgraceful.
A plague on all their blushed-out plooks.
posted by Xenoverse at Friday, July 08, 2005
1 Comments:
I have to admit that even for a Canucklehead steeped in a multicultural ethos, watching the BBC do its ideological gymnastics routine can be quite disconcerting. Good post.
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