Harad IV

The Beeb is thought by many people around the world to be a bulwark-perhaps the last- against the inroads made by privatisation and the mentalities that accompany it. Public service, ideas service (as some have called it). The notion of an obligation to the wider public that resists a culture of instant gratification and commercial values.

Since one of your best friends works for them it's best ignoring the more sordid details of back-scratching and sucking up that finds its place in any decaying institution. Public school networks and nepotism go hand in hand in the modern economy (in any economy, you suppose). 

But to take a step back. Old auntie lost what little credibility she had after its shameful coverage of the war on Iraq. "Old hands" had now become filthy hands in the service of power. Instead of fulfilling their public duty of questioning those in power they succumbed to the desire to get in bed with them ("embedded journalists") so that they could deliver the "breaking news".

And, of course, it's not even worth talking about Israel and Palestine. Anyone interested can read Dyer's comments to get an idea of how much pressure they were under.

Well, all of that is really quite obvious to anyone with half a brain. What is perhaps less so is their shoddy and comical coverage of politics and culture on regular television programmes. Politics first. To think that the only real programmes on politics are Question Time and that weasel, Andrem Neill with Portillo , will give you some idea of the shallowness of their approach. Need one say any more?

Culture. This, too, is just another symptom of the reach of capitalism. Costume dramas and ridiculous "safe" depictions of history are, at best, simply laughable. Even worse are the programmes on books (almost non-existent) and art. 

Art has become all about showiness, consumption and presentation, about 'coolness' and the ability to draw in younger crowds (we've got to make art accessible, break down the elites' hold on judgement (which is all very old hat)). So, cue feigned excitement, dizzying displays of verbal diarrohea, long, beautiful shots of the work of art in glorious technicolour. Passion. Art is always about passion or suffering or madness or power (whatever is falvour of the day). Untangle some details of the artist's life-that's what we're really interested in anyway, a bit of high-end gossip. 

There's a serious point to be made here about how the dissolution of seriousness is precisely what's required for capitalism to extend it's hold (F. Jameson).

K. Clark's magisterial Civilisation speaks of world of stable values. Some will obviously reflect on how the programme also reflects patriarchy and elitism, on how it (in it's time) was symptomatic of a phase of capitalism that demanded conformity to norms, order and deference. 

Is it even possible for anyone to have such a grand vision nowadays or are we destined to veer between the alternative of a fragmentary approach and a false and shallow unity?

I've given up watching television (even the football) but did catch the back of Dateline London with Gavin Estler (a decent bloke). To watch this again made me cringe, what with the thick-skulled prostitutes and well-paid monkeys (aka journalists). Sit in your lovely Hampshire home and pontificate about something you know absolutely nothing about because you haven't bothered to actually do any investigative reporting or even read up on the issue. Here's the trick: show that you are one degree (but only one degree) more intelligent than the average illiterate Joe. Remind people that you've been to university by throwing in the odd unintelligible word, feign some moral concern or, even better, outrage, and with supreme confidence declare that you have some insight into reality from which me and you are ordinarily barred.  

Pick up your cheque on the way out as you bow down and speak to your contacts so that you can get called up again to boost your "visibility". 

~

Millhauser on invisibility.