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BBCWatch For The BBC, Brando’s Slide Is A Metaphor For America’s Decline BBC Balance And Fairness As Far Away As Ever BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House programme says it all about the state of our state-controlled media monopoly’s journalism standards. The infantile smart-arse Eddy Meyer has been dumped as presenter for the ludicrous and out-of-her-depth tabloid journalist Fi Glover. Today we had a stand-in whose name I’ve already forgotten. (A quick look at the BBC’s website reveals it was a Justin Webb. He was “exploring the darker reaches of America as it celebrated Independence Day”.) Webb lost no time in dashing my hopes that a new presenter might be a bit more intelligent, seek a more balanced look at the news, and not be a knee-jerk anti-American. Not a chance! As this bloke’s day job was one of the BBC’s Washington correspondents I suppose I should have known that he couldn’t have got it without passing a “hate-America/Democrats can do no wrong” test. He came up with this gem. Was the fact that Marlon Brando, (the second worst-ever actor in the history of Hollywood after James Dean) died obese and deep in debt, a metaphor for the state of America today? The arrogance and stupidity of that thesis jolted me out of my Sunday morning slumbers. Then we had interviews with a bunch of half-educated blacks from Washington, D.C., and wouldn’t you know, they hated America too! One gentleman even thought that the food in Europe, was terrific compared with America. He had visited “Europe” for 14 days, but the interviewer didn’t even ask where he’d gone. Then they found a bunch of actors in London and asked them questions about American foreign policy. It turned out that this group was not quite the knee-jerk Hollywood lefty Michael Moore parrots that you might expect, and were more thoughtful and well informed than I expected. They were training as actors in London. They weren’t rabid Bush haters, but certainly didn’t qualify as offering a balanced view to the prevailing ideas being pushed by Broadcasting House. Last week we heard that the BBC plans to set up a training course to raise the standards of its journalism. Balance and fairness must be the watchwords, but if you don’t employ any journalists that are to the right of Chris Patten, this becomes impossible. First the BBC must widen its intake, and start employing some decision makers that have experience in doing this at the highest level. As a Reuter’s editor and reporter of 33 years standing, I hereby offer my services. Recalling an item on BBC TV news last Thursday, I realise this is never going to happen. The ever-useless, hopelessly biased John Simpson was doing a piece from Baghdad attempting to sum up the view of the locals about the handover of power and the trial of Saddam Hussein. He ended his piece with an interview with the man who ironed Saddam’s trousers when he was in power. For Simpson, perhaps the longest serving high-profile BBC journalist, this represented an authoritative source. If the BBC is ever going to live up to the highest standards of journalism, the likes of Simpson will be out on their ears. Neil Winton – July 4, 2004 |