Yesterday’s hero all set for breaking the news
YESTERDAY, as usual, I listened to Radio 4’s flagship Today programme and as you would expect, it spent a lot of time covering the US elections. Although it hadn’t been a great night for the Democrats, they reported, neither had the Republicans done as well as expected. And my reaction surprised me. I wondered, is this actually true?
Yes, as it happens, it was, but that wasn’t the point. This issue is that the BBC has completely lost its reputation for impartiality, to the point where you find yourself wondering whether the programme that was once essential listening for politicians, businessmen and women and movers and shakers everywhere, could now be putting its own interpretation on events rather than reporting the news straightforwardly. For it is pretty obvious that the BBC generally, and its presenters specifically, are pretty anti-Republican, especially as the spectre of you-know-who continues to lurk in the background, just as they are woke, anti-Tory and totally out of touch with their listeners. Those listeners once extended across the world. Just over a week ago, it was reported that Today’s listening figures had fallen by over half a million from 6.5 million to 5.9 million. But is anyone surprised? It is not only the abysmal quality of the presenters that is at fault (they have one decent one left, Justin Webb, who ironically was doing much of the US election coverage) but the fact that the BBC has lost its reputation for being trustworthy. It is biased and that affects everything it touches.
Nearly 30 years ago I was lucky enough to visit Czechoslovakia, as it then was, and I was told that the BBC was held in such reverence that people helped the corporation to smuggle people in – and smuggle information out – to report on the 1968 Prague uprising. That reputation has been shattered for the simple reason that the BBC now has its own agenda and you cannot always tell if it is reporting on what has actually happened or what it has wanted to happen.
Perhaps it is absolutely rigid in its standards of reporting the news – I’m sure it thinks it is – but its world view is now so obvious and so widely known that you simply cannot be sure.
The BBC is clearly a busted flush now anyway: the rise of streaming channels, social media and the rest of it means that a national broadcaster funded by a levy is simply not feasible any more. But there are, or were, parts of it that were worth preserving had its own employees not destroyed it from within.
WHO would fight to hear those direly unfunny “comedians” on what passes for the comedy shows and news quizzes which are nothing but Leftwing propaganda masquerading as entertainment? Who in their right mind would put Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson up with the broadcasting greats of yesteryear? And the saddest element of it all is that Auntie herself, with the possible exception of the Director General, is so completely unaware of the mistakes it has made and the wrong paths it has chosen. RIP BBC: you were great, but you’re yesterday’s hero. Bring on the new.
Just to remind you all – there’s still a hosepipe ban on.