Should the BBC be Privatised?
Recent events show the problems with government funding
For those unaware of the scandal, see the clip the BBC spliced of Trump’s 6th January pre-insurrection speech to make it look like it was a call to arms. This altered speech was shown on Panarama days before the 2024 election but only came to light a month ago. Since then, Tim Davie, the Director General of the BBC and Deborah Turness, CEO of BBC news have both resigned.
This has ignited a huge debate in the UK and beyond. Trump certainly wasn’t impressed and has threatened to sue for big money. Many Brits have taken his side. However, others feel that this is a right-wing attack on a British institution. I’ve certainly received plenty of emails and petitions about this. The Liberal Democrats sent me one with this headline “The BBC belongs to Britain, not Trump”.
Still questions have to be asked. Has the BBC lost its way? Do there need to be structural changes? Or is this just an unnecessary witch-hunt by forces on the right that want to control the agenda?
But perhaps the real question that needs to be explored is whether it’s time that the umbilical cord between the British government and the BBC was cut. And that is a question with no easy answers.
Childhood Nostalgia
The BBC has long been ingrained in the British psyche. I still remember vividly when I was over visiting from the US as a kid and seeing it on TV. And back in the 1980s, the BBC was one of the only things on the box. And talking of televisions, those large boxes would seem like museum pieces compared to the wide flatscreens we have today.
There were only 4 channels back then, and Channel 4 was new. Two of them were BBC channels(BBC 1 and BBC 2), and unlike American network TV(with the exception of PBS), there were no commercials. What they would often have though, is a host talking to the audience every now and then to tell them what was coming on next, something they still have today on Norway’s NRK.
But one of the things I remember most about the BBC is their news. And there certainly didn’t seem a lack of it. The main coverage was about the coalminers’ strikes. It felt like every day there were huge groups of picketers, fights with police and strong statements from the prime minister Margaret Thatcher. At times it almost felt like a war zone. Perhaps it was in a way.
But what was constant was the BBC themselves. Even as a youngster they seem like neutral observers just trying to tell the truth. Looking back, many would suggest they were favouring the miners a tad too much. But it didn’t seem that way to me.
The Shine Wears Off
Over the years, however, I became aware that the BBC did indeed, like any normal entity, have its biases. It was very clear to me that it was centre-left leaning. However, I admired what I saw as their values of neutrality, respect and fair play. With the overwhelming majority of British media being far to the right(not far-right but sprinting in that direction), it was great to have a clear counterbalance and give the left a chance. The most important thing to me was that the BBC stood for tolerance.
A number of things started to change in the 1990s. Perhaps the biggest was the introduction of Sky. Suddenly Britain(and indeed Europe) went from having a handful of channels to many. And soon, the internet emerged. It started to become clear that the BBC was no longer the only show in town.
Of course the BBC, like all medium platforms, has adapted, creating a successful on-line presence. Wherever someone is in the world, the Beeb is very easy to find. But this makes the BBC licence fee all the more controversial. I remember when I was living in Scotland in the 1990s, few of us wanted to have to pay the then £70 even though students are meant to be exempt, especially when I saw that other channels got their money from advertising. Now the licence fee for each household is a whopping £175 a year.
Clear Bias
Nonetheless, we happily pay a licence fee for NRK here in Norway. But what changed for me, is that the BBC changed. And what I’ve noticed is that the sense of neutrality and respect seems to have gone.
The prime example was during the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014. This was, and still is a contentious issue. Friends fell out and neighbours stopped speaking. And that’s natural.
What wasn’t was the BBC’s studio coverage. I’ll never forget watching a Scottish guest in the studio explaining how Scotland would not be any worse off economically whether it was independent or not. The host was so blunt and rude and said things like “No, that’s terrible…” about the prospect. For me, it wasn’t about right or wrong, but that the reporter was almost trying to tell the audience what to think. There were countless examples like that.
Another facet is how the ideology of the Beeb seemed to change, especially after David Cameron’s Conservatives came to power in 2010. He had threatened to cut their funding. While this was presented as helping the public during tough times, the reality was that the Tories had long been unhappy with how the BBC had been so pro-Labour. There was even a joke doing the rounds that the BBC stood for the Blair Broadcasting Corporation(based on Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair).
And over the years it became clear that the station, which had so often held politicians to account, has been much more friendly to the government. The journalists seem to have pre-conceived ideas in interviews and there’s countless examples of them holding people to account they don’t like, but not those they do. I can remember many.
Final Thoughts
I could go on with this all day, but I feel it best to conclude with this thought. It’s unrealistic to expect any broadcaster to be neutral as everyone has their own innate biases. But when that broadcaster is bankrolled by the government, they will always be vulnerable to accusations of interference.
The BBC put in a noble effort to avoid this for a very long time. Some people would say too neutral, like the way it treated the 1982 Falklands War. But since 2010 it has come across much more as a reflection of what the government wants than a truly independent organisation. It’s clear what happened with the Trump splice. Labour wanted Kamala Harris to win and the BBC played along.
If the BBC had been a private organisation and done this, then, of course, they would still get into trouble. But at least they would be acting on their own merits. And that’s perhaps direction the BBC should take. I’ve discussed previously how wrong Britain was to privatise water and the mail. Those should return to government control.
But the BBC may very well be better served by breaking free. GB News, which is a controversial right-wing news channel, has had success. Despite operating at a loss, it has rich owners. If the right people came along to support the BBC, it could restore the Beeb’s editorial freedom. So despite the fear of the doomsayers, privatising the BBC might be just the tonic that is needed.