Y’know, I spend a lot of time backing the BBC. I’m happy to pay the license fee and I’m comfortable with the concept of a patriarchal state media corporation that dares to tell us what it thinks we ought to watch, rather than letting the “Great British Public” drag programming content down to the lowest common denominator. I’ll gladly defend it against the likes of Paul Dacre, who seems to think we’d be better off with a fully commercial US-style range of TV channels, where the primary motives are maximising viewing figures and keeping the advertisers happy.
There’s plenty on the various BBC channels that I hate. No problem… I don’t expect my every whim to be catered for. What’s sad, though, is when part of the BBC’s output goes so dramatically downhill, dumbing down faster than you can say “well… duh”. I’m talking about the news bulletins. With laptop on lap, I sat and watched tonight’s 10pm news programme, typing this accurate (-ish) transcription…
A man who was paid a lot of money to drive a car very fast while being filmed for a TV programme, but unfortunately crashed, is now in good health and presenting that TV programme again. This man is a national hero and his programme is on this channel, so it’s bound to be worth watching. It features no racism or CCTV footage of people arguing.
By the way, 250 people were killed in Iraq today. That’s miles away, though, so it’ll be safe to put the cat out tonight.
There were several football matches today, and normally we’d just give you a quick run-down. However, for some unknown reason there’s no Match of the Day tonight, even though these were important FA Cup matches featuring big teams, so we’ll have to show you some more detail. Unfortunately, we had to burble so much about celebrities at the start of this programme, we’ve only time to show you one or two random goals from each match. Oops, soz about that.
Now the weather. Tomorrow will be quite a usable day.
Yeah, I know I’m cynical and the Big Brother thing has (whether I like it or not) been a big media event, but really! And yes, the weatherman really *did* describe tomorrow as being “usable”. I may get out of bed after all.