September 5, 2009Learning a lesson from Auntie

Those who know me know that the BBC isn’t exactly my favourite institution. Those of you reading outside the UK may or may not know that every UK citizen is expected (forced, in fact) to pay a “telly tax” of £142 a year whether they like it or not and, in some cases, whether they have a TV or not.

Everyone damns with faint praise so let’s start by setting out what the BBC does well. They do produce quality television.

They also produce a lot of dross, but so do the other channels. I’m quite sure that programmes like Jonathan Meades’ Magnetic North and Jonathan Dimbleby’s Russia would never have been made by another broadcaster. So credit where credit is due, they’re good at the highbrow stuff. Although I, a subscriber to everything from films through the post to a contract mobile phone I can watch films on, don’t have a problem with paying for it. This is subscriber-model stuff being foist on the masses, who are subsequently billed for it.

I don’t like anything else about the BBC.

By their own admission, their news output demonstrates an inherent left wing bias (despite absurd claims to the contrary) and it’s simply not true to say that ‘oh well, at least they don’t show adverts’. Because they do.

The BBC advertises itself.

I’m not just talking about those moments where they play two minute clips about how great they are in between programmes (although their smugness does nauseate me far more than any of the commercial ads on the other channels), I’m taking about the vast amount of money spent on lobbying and promotion and behind-the scenes jostling to ensure that the BBC remains the UK’s number 1 broadcaster, state funded — the biggest brand in the country.

So when polls like this one come out, saying how much everyone loves the BBC, I’m a little cynical. They love the BBC because they’re being told to love the BBC by the BBC, which dominates not just the programming schedules, but also the news agenda, with its ubiquity. I was installing widgets on my iGoogle page the other day and even though there were plenty of other options available, the news widget I installed just displayed headlines from the BBC. Why? Because they’re so huge in the UK, they dominate the news agenda. I know that whatever’s on their frontpage will be the thing everyone’s talking about, so for a quick look at what I need to know (to know about what’s being talked about), I’ll use the BBC. Then if I’m really interested in the story I’ll read the broadsheets and get some detailed analysis from my favourite blogs. At the minute, I still find it hard to beat a combination of The Times and The Spectator.

There’s a very obvious analogy to be made when it comes to state propaganda machines, involving people with funny accents, walks and bombastic salutes. So I won’t patronize you by making it. No, in fact, I think the BBC’s level of control of the UK population is far more insidious. The BBC is known as, calls itself, “auntie” — if there’s such a word as ‘matrician’ deriving from ‘patrician’, then the BBC is it. It’s like having a bigger, older sibling telling you what to say and think and do, carefully watching in case you slip up or say something out of line. Not that you’ll be told off, of course. Just politely told that you’re wrong. The BBC frames debate in the UK, making it utterly impossible to discuss things like the NHS (another state “institution”) sensibly and sometimes doesn’t even bother giving anyone right-of-centre the right to reply.

So what can we learn from all this?

Well, other than the fact that as something of a libertarian (my first degree was in political science, you know) I don’t like the BBC very much as a coercive state broadcaster, we can learn this:

The more you tell people you’re great, the more they’ll believe it.
Sometimes, people aren’t searching for evidence…
…they’re looking for reassurance.

That’s why “Auntie” is still alive and well.