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Sunday 12 July 2020

BBC Bashers’ Proms Own Goal

Such is the obsession of some people with putting the boot into the hated BBC that they abandon all reason when presented with what looks like the Corporation doing something, anything, that causes them offence. Also abandoned is any spirit of inquiry, or any consideration that the material they are taking on trust may not have been fully researched, or that it may have been generated to serve an agenda. Like that of the Mail.
The Mail told readersOne of the BBC's own columnists has called for Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory' to be scrapped from the corporation's Last Night of the Proms concert because they are 'crudely jingoistic’. Richard Morrison … used his column in the BBC Music Magazine to claim it would be 'insensitive, bordering on incendiary' to chant the 'nationalist' songs this year in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement”.
Someone failed to look before leaping ...

There was more. “He took aim at the traditional - and popular - patriotic pieces, and called for a 'toe-curling embarrassing anachronistic farrago of nationalistic songs' to be replaced with a 'more reflective' finale which doesn't 'provoke offence or ridicule’ … The column has sparked a furious backlash, with Tory MP Philip Davies branding it 'extremist, virtue signalling views.’” Ah, Philip Davies, the voice of moderation. What else did he say?
... and he was not alone

He told MailOnline: 'This is the kind of metropolitan left wing political correct drivel which is so prevalent at the BBC that makes it so out of touch with the country at large … The sooner the licence fee is abolished and we are no longer forced to pay for these extremist virtue signalling views to be rammed down our throats at our own cost the better.’
Thus the starting gun for a pile-on, led by Brexit Party top gun Richard Tice. "This is why BBC licence fee needs reform. Vast majority of patriotic taxpayers should not be forced to pay salary of woke lefties at BBC who want to banish key parts of our heritage”. Tory Paul Bristow added “Just attention seeking drivel. The BBC preach diversity but are one of the least diverse of any national institution. Some of the staff loathe the viewers they pretend to serve. I weep for what it has become, and for it’s [sic] inevitable downgrade & demise”.
And in the fullness of time, along came Darren Grimes to show he hadn’t done his research either. “The BBC’s Music Magazine telling us that some of our most popular national songs should be scrapped, these people won’t be happy until they’ve destroyed every last vestige of pride and unity that this island enjoys. Don’t like it? Switch off”.
But, as James Coatsworth has pointed out, “Enter Richard Morrison, the chief music critic of The Times. He also writes a column for BBC Music Magazine. Confusingly BBC Music Magazine isn’t published by the BBC, it’s entirely separate and owned by Immediate Media. So Richard doesn’t work for the BBC”. Morrison is a Murdoch journalist.
He noted “certain people have seen coverage of Richard’s column (most notably in the Daily Mail) but instead of saying they disagree with him, have opted to criticise the BBC … For some reason they’re pretending that the views of a single journalist who doesn’t work for the BBC are the views of the BBC … Indeed they like the Last Night of the Proms so much that they think the BBC, which makes it, shouldn’t be funded”. Got it in one.

So that’s four more uninformed and ignorant BBC bashers who want the Corporation defunded because of what a Murdoch journalist said. We are through the looking glass.
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9 comments:

Darren G said...

Oh come on

They stopped reading at bbc.

Then they tried their own "cancel" culture

The Toffee (597) said...

How about the beeb is defunded and left to become subscription only? See how it gets on then.

Personally I think the pederast-infested, bunch of ex-public school failures should be fucked off altogether, I could quite happily live without repeat after repeat of dad's army, shitey cooking shoes with that talentless baldy twat, and dan 'I got this job on merit, not cos my dad and uncle are on telly' snow or claire 'I'm a posh lesbian y'know?' balding or that utter quilt ben fogle ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

And then there'd be NO accusations of bias either way.

Rant over.

Unknown said...

BBC priveledged, lefty, woke wankers.

Unknown said...

Stop trying to defend a privileged white man having a personal rant about music he doesn’t like but us plebs do

N said...

Toffee, you must be fun at parties...

Anonymous said...

There is surely little doubt the BBC has fallen from grace, though its visual values are second to none.

The main problem centres on its "news and current affairs" content and presentation. A blind man on a galloping horse could see these are overwhelmingly right wing, very occasional nominal exception aside. This ensures the "product" is mere worthless propaganda ignored by all but the most ignorant and gullible. Which has made it an immoral junkyard staffed and fronted by cowardly freeloaders. A glance at the obvious right wing political inclinations of its front men and women shows why.

The subject of BBC decline was examined long ago by Milton Shulman in his 1973 book The Least Worst Television in the World, chapter IV, page 81, The Greene Regime. Said decline began, of course, with the introduction of commercial TV a few decades before and Roy Thompson's notorious "A licence to print money" comment. Since then matters have become much worse.

When considering this issue it's important to separate out "news" from "non-news", though Yes there's a cultural meeting point somewhere between the two. The REAL difficulties arise when political inclinations of the former spill over into the latter. At which point there is a danger of looming totalitarianism. That is where we stand now, a sort of "understated" British version of the Spielberg/Hanks-Fox News flag-waving urfascist bullshit culture. At best, Winston Smith in a suit and without even nominal resistance.

A publicly-funded adverts-free neutral public broadcasting system is essential for the cultural health of any nation. Otherwise, just finally hand everything over to the moral dwarfs and gangsters of Canary Wharf. The only "opposition" a gaggle of Brylcreemed spivs allied with sandal-wearing ageing Gaitskellites reeking of mothballs.

It's worth fighting for. But looking at the present situation who would deny the battle is almost lost?

Land of Hopeless Tories said...

For neo-plonker Brits: -

How nice to be in England
Now that Brexit's near
I stand upright in my wheelbarrow
And pretend I'm Boadicea

Not sure who to credit for the original. Either Stanshall or Innes or both.

Maria said...

Anonymous doesn't count.

Jonathan said...

I wouldn't object to the BBC becoming subscription only, no more listening to rightwing cranks like Laura Kuenssberg, Andrew Neil, Amol Rajan and the very dull Chris Mason.