Bill's Comment Page

Broadcasting, Impartiality, the BBC – and Sullivan’s boring monomania

Sullivan quotes from an e-mail he has received; I re-quote a small portion of what he includes on his front page:

“And, to make matters worse, the whole of British broadcasting is hamstrung by “impartiality” rules that prevent the likes of SKY News and other independents from saying what they really should (want to be?) be saying. I very much hope that one of the "casualties" of war will be the BBC.
Yours, a very fed-up Londoner.”

Frankly, I don’t disagree with the ‘fed-up’ Londoner that paying a forced ‘tax’ (for that is what it is) to the BBC, whether one watches it or not, is a complete pain. However, if the best criticism that one can come up with is that it is ‘impartial’ then I do believe that the argument for abolition of this particular symbol of modern Britain is pretty weak. Impartiality is particularly important at times of crisis, such as the present war to oust Saddam Hussein and the Ba’ath Party from Iraq. I am completely in favour of the military action currently underway, and was in favour of it long before the conflict began, but what we are fighting for (at least partly) is the freedom to say unpopular things – a freedom singularly lacking in Iraq.

It is ironic, to put it no stronger, that ‘fed-up’ Londoner refers to SKY as a bastion of free speech. It may be commercial, but it is not ‘impartial’ – any more than are the other media organs owned by News International. Nor of course is the ‘Telegraph’ group of publications; I tend to read ‘The Daily/Sunday Telegraph’ as my main daily newspaper, but I am well aware of just how ‘slanted’ is some of their reporting, even in what are supposedly straight news stories. The same can be said of papers such as ‘The Guardian/Observer’ and most other newspapers.

I’m not ‘against’ any of this, of course – it’s all part of what having a ‘free’ press and media is all about – just don’t confuse it with ‘impartiality’.

Of course, Sullivan (by implication), and his ‘fed-up’ Londoner correspondent, seems to consider that impartiality is somehow a bad thing. Go figure! (as Sullivan himself might say)