The BBC: the Last Bastion of Democracy (by a Social Nihilist)?

As much as I hate paying for a television licence, I have to say I (almost) wholeheartedly support this, er, grand (?) auspicious (?) institution. Television is not free, but a TV licence is better than advertising. This is a reply to the comments by the right wing nuts in the Daily Mail bemoaning that, because the BBC actually contains different points of view on Europe, the Iraq War etc and isn’t full of Islamophobic, warmongering, lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key, crap, it basically should be scrapped and replaced with more commercial channels.

There are people who think it wonderful that most of the printed “news” (propaganda) in this country follows pretty much the same line, and that television should do the same. Except that would lead to 60 channels OF THE SAME BLOODY THING, and, most importantly for what little democracy we have in this country, the same opinions. It is like saying that democracies are basically countries where everybody thinks the same (and if they don’t they should be taught to all think the same) and that there is some kind of majority opinion and taste which the majority all share.

The point of the BBC is to cater for different tastes and ideas, not that it has anything particularly radical on, but it’s a start. To replace the hefty TV licence, the government could use the VAT paid when people buy televisions and set-top boxes to pay for the BBC. However the BBC is funded, it is worth paying to prevent us sleepwalking into a totalitarian state, ran on behalf of the Daily Mail. Save us from Fox News!