Blessed Relief

 

Happily we were spared the righteous sermons from the ‘Whispering Worthy’, Reverend Richard Coles,  this Saturday on ‘Saturday Live’.…in the hot seat instead were Anita Anand and Andrea Catherwood…..however not so different really in approach and values….plug and play, pop up priggishness and prurient prejudice.

That is a bit of a problem for the BBC, and an audience force fed a diet of sanitised, sermonising,  earnest and pious do-gooders educated at Oxbridge who get their news and views from the Guardian and Independent.

 

Time for some new blood?

 

Campaigner: Lenny Henry wants to see more diversity on television

 

Lenny Henry & Co are getting hot under the collar because there just aren’t enough Black faces on TV.

 

Lenny Henry calls for law to boost low numbers of black people in TV industry

 

Henry wants a boycott:

Lenny Henry has demanded the BBC improve its recruitment of people from culturally diverse background amid wider calls for a general boycott of the BBC licence fee.

 

What’s interesting is that Henry has instant access to the BBC’s DG, Tony Hall:

He is putting a proposal to BBC director general Tony Hall on Tuesday and to the regulator Ofcom intended to encourage more productions to use BAME actors and production staff.

 

‘When I met Tony Hall at the BBC he said “Let’s talk at the end of April”,’ he said. ‘Tony Hall wants to be seen as leading from the front and the BBC needs to lead from the front because they’re the main game in town. If the BBC decides they are going to do something everybody’s going to follow.’

 

 

I wonder if the same rapid show of concern would be coming from Hall if it wasn’t a Black man complaining about lack of representation for the ethnic ‘communtiy’ but someone who believes the BBC doesn’t represent the vast majority of people politically, socially and culturally in their coverage of Europe, immigration, climate, the economy, religion and Israel?

We already know the answer to that……far from responding positively to such critcism and trying to improve their political balance the BBC’s response is firstly to ridicule such a notion, then to indignantly deny it absolutely, then, years later, to admit well maybe we were a bit lacking in impartiality…but only to claim that that was all in the past…things are better now.

 

The BBC’s stonewalling of such complaints can be evidenced by this internal spat where the controller of Radio 1 refuses to acknowledge any criticism even from that great BBC Immortal, Jeremy Paxman:

Take the stairs, Paxo! Radio 1 chief hits back at Newsnight host who says lift music is ‘hell’

‘Dear Jeremy, I read with interest your views on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra. I am Controller of both.

‘Clearly you are entitled to your view, but please consider who and what you effect [sic] when you express those views.’

 

 

Yes…‘I read with interest..’

Just before filing it in the trashbin.

And note that…‘you are entitled to your views but….’

 

That encapsulates the whole problem with the BBC…..don’t say anything that will offend certain sections of the community….which leads to the unofficial censoring and manipulation of the news by the BBC….the manufacturng of consent, the undermining of dissent.

…all the more important when you consider how powerful the BBC is….as Lenny Henry admits:

‘If the BBC decides they are going to do something everybody’s going to follow.’

 

 

Radio 1 Controller Ben Cooper did say something else of real note though:

‘If the licence fee is collected from everyone, then the BBC should represent the whole of society, not just certain parts of it.’

 

Shame the BBC fails completely in that task….much as I’m delighted to be treated to the ‘Whispering Worthys’ ‘, and his fellow travellers’,  asthetic and moral values perhaps we could have something more ‘diverse’…and I don’t just mean the same old BBC message but with a ‘Black face’  just as the BBC does when it employs ‘authentic’ working class voices…who are all carefully selected, screened and vetted to check they show the appropriate BBC values despite their ‘disadvantaged’…morally, socially and politically, exposed as they must have been to innate prejudices and ignorance of the white working class….lives.  Stacey Dooley is a prime example of this at work….Giles Fraser another prime case where showing the right ‘right-on’ credentials gets you a BBC meal ticket.

‘…..the more of her ‘investigative journalism’ (enjoyed that part in your review too, lmao) you watch, the more you realize that BBC must be paying her for each teardrop she produces. Her crying probably got good ratings in the first episode, so they told her to keep it up. That’s my theory at least.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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5 Responses to Blessed Relief

  1. DJ says:

    It speaks for itself: members of an approved victim group complain about BBC bias and they’re fast-tracked into a meeting with the DG. Conservatives claim the BBC is biased and they get told that they’re delusional. Need we say more?

       46 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      One of several pointed ongoing memes in W1A has been the always remote ‘Tony’ (like ‘er indoors’ or Wolowitz’ mum, only less vocal) who all must please, bestows praise like Young Mr. Grace, dispenses wisdom like Solomon via his spokespersons (sorry, that is is what actually happens really) and is only approached by few but is never seen.
      That Lenny has been granted an audience, and in short order, does suggest many buttons were pushed.

         11 likes

  2. Guest Who says:

    ‘Clearly you are entitled to your view..’
    Clearly. It is not… yet… a complete MiniTruth clone.
    However, I wonder if, once the dust settled, Jezza got expedited so he can’t express such views to BBC ears at least for 2 years, as I believe can happen to mere members of the public not on first name terms with Tony?

       8 likes

  3. stuart says:

    why does lenny henry this has been nobody who was not even funny as a so called comedian keep on popping up every now and again to bitch on about the lack of minoritys in soaps etc,does he not watch eastenders,corrie,emmerdale,hollyoaks etc,there are plenty of black and asian representation there,lenny henry is just playing the old black victimhood race card like the lawrence family and judging by his pic up there with his black power salute you could be forgiven for thinking he had just come out of a a black panther meeting with his threats of conflict if he does not get his own way,just shut up lenny henry,your just a boring old has been who done quiet well out of the entertainment industry which strangely you never made no complaints about racism and discrimination then when you was never off the bbc,why now you moaning and race stirring you bandwagon jumper.

       7 likes

  4. DownBoy says:

    I’ve always thought that the main problem with the BBC has been lack of ethnic minorities represented on screen. NURSE, MY TABLETS!

       4 likes