Fraser asked how Britain can compete in the new world of global television. Here are two
answers:
1) Don’t give up on the BBC. To use the language of marketing that has been polluting English for a generation, the BBC is a “global brand”. Fraser’s idea that Sky could ever win the same levels of trust is optimistic in the extreme. It would take decades for Sky to build a comparable reputation; longer if the board and shareholders allow the disgraced Murdoch family to cling onto power. BBC bias is a snide and cowardly phenomenon. But let us be realistic. When people talk about BBC bias they usually mean Radio 4 bias. The World Service remains a model of quality journalism.
2) Raid the overseas aid budget. It is absurd that the Department for International Development is spending like a sailor in a whorehouse, while the BBC is slashing the World Service’s budget. Impartial journalism is among the best forms of foreign aid that Britain gives. It treats subjugated peoples as if they were free, intelligent adults. It takes them out of the infantilism all dictatorships impose and allows listeners and viewers to understand what it would be like to live in a society where they could argue as grown-ups.
If David Cameron were to appear before me as some kind of Chipping Norton genie and promise to grant just one wish, I would command him to take £500 million a year from the DfID budget and give it to the World Service.
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