Blog:State Sponsored Journalism
From Bolton Interweb
Lorna Mower, Media Correspondent, 28th August 2009
James Murdoch, son of Rupert and Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corporation in the UK, attacks the BBC in his MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival today. Murdoch, British born but culturally American and head, in the UK, of a highly aggressive empire of pure capitalism including Sky, The Sun, and The Times, complains that "The expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision,"
At the root of the whinging is that News Corporation has just made a £2 billion loss and wants to charge customers for online news content. The trouble being that the BBC provide a fantastic online news service completely free of charge at the point of delivery to users. Why pay for News International's content when you can get far better for nothing, or more accurately that you have already paid for via your license fee. The answer is obvious, abolish the BBC, leaving the way clear for the Murdoch empire to charge you for finding out what's going on. That's fair isn't it. To News International. But not to you and me.
Ironically the BBC, enemy of independent journalism, gave considerable space to Murdoch's views on their Newsnight programme, as well as a summary on their news website. Otherwise you can bet only the audience at the lecture would ever have heard Mr Murdoch's sour grapes.
Is the BBC state-sponsored journalism? No, it is citizen-sponsored journalism and whilst bias has been alleged, all politicians think it is biased against their views. By and large I sleep a lot sounder with the likes of Dimbleby and Paxo holding politicians of all hues to account purely because they are not answerable to a proprietor. BBC journalists do not see themselves as state-sponsored, and do not report as if they are state-sponsored, and that is what is important.
Is it a threat to the plurality of news provision? In other words, is the demise of commercial news services, particularly reflected in the closure, and threatened closure of loss making national and local newspapers, the fault of the BBC? Of course not. Firstly newspapers have always closed, and new ones have launched, and in a recession the trend will be downward. Britain has a very vibrant and diverse national newspaper market all competing for readers. The sheer number of different newspapers is a threat to some. A second reason is the rise of the Internet and general availability of free news content, and the BBC is only one provider amongst many. It happens to be the best but the threat here is the weakness of the competition - if they upped their game they might get more customers. Commercial online news providers get their income from advertisers and again this is a recession so income is currently on the slide. In a boom the money will be rolling in and the BBC, without the ability to generate advertising revenue, is constrained by its funding mechanisms. Swings and roundabouts. Newspapers are also losing out to the Internet in the field of classified ads. It is progress - what should we do? Abolish the Internet?
Is the BBC a threat to the independence of news provision. Absolutely and definitely not; it is a beacon of independence and integrity in a media world dominated by commercial interests pushing their own profit agendas at the expense of objectivity. News Corporation courts politicians not for your good or mine but for their own selfish commercial interests. They use their media outlets to promote politics and politicians that will support and enhance their own selfish commercial interests. News International, and particularly its pseudo-newspaper The Sun consistently attempts to sway the politics of the UK to its own ends, manipulating its readers to a far greater extent than any other news service including the BBC. It is The Sun, and Sun journalists and editors who are generally regarded as being sleazy, imaginative, and often lacking in truth. It is News International and other news corporations pushing the commercial interests of their proprietors that is the threat to the independence of news provision.
So what was Murdoch talking about? News International doesn't like us having a news provider that is of higher quality that their own services, that is (more) accurate and objective, that does not kowtow to the financial and political interests of the Murdoch family, and has a constant income that looks enviable in recession but will look like a hindrance in a boom. We happen to be in a recession and News International are suffering. I don't give a shit about the Murdochs and their bank balances, but I care very much about the quality and independence of the news I read. The BBC is not perfect but it is better than anything else around and a million times more trustworthy than anything produced by News International. That is why this site uses BBC news feeds. The news isn't free, we all pay for it in our licence fee, not through state tax revenues.
The BBC does have its faults. People should not be in prison for non-payment of the license fee, non-payment should be a civil matter. It is wrong that a service provider can imprison customers for not paying their bill. Imagine if Sky could send you to jail for bouncing your subscription. They cut you off and might sue. With digital TV the technology should exist to do likewise. And the local radio network, unlike the national network, is of quite poor quality compared to commercial rivals. The BBC's strength is in its national services and perhaps it should consider leaving local markets to local commercial radio services. Overall, though, the BBC provides an excellent public, not state, service of which we should all be very proud. The model, being anti-commercial, means we are in control not big business and their profit motives. Perhaps the future of local news on the Internet is that it should be a community volunteer activity - that would still be free and still upset Mr Murdoch as he continues to try and extract the last pound coin from our pockets for his sub-standard services.
© Evrose, 2010
