I’ve often been critical of the BBC. I don’t care for their flagrant biases, their ongoing existence paid for by a government subsidy paid for by a tax on simply owning a television (whether or not one actually watches the BBC, and enforced by vans equipped with “TV detectors”), and various and sundry reasons.
But no longer do I think that they are a complete and utter waste.
They have published a piece that shows that, on occasion, they can be brilliant, insightful, and truly recognize quality and rightness when it is presented to them.
Maybe that TV tax isn’t so bad after all, if it’s helping pieces such as this see the light.
(Thanks to Kevin, our fearless leader, for pointing this piece out to me…)
What’s so disturbing about this story is how my reaction is “Wow, Jay Tea got in a real story– on BBC news!”
And then I stop to think about all the implications of that thought.
I see they mentioned you at the end, Jay Tea. Yay for Adobe!
Hey! I’m “famous” too!
On the issue of being taxed “whether or not you watch the BBC”, I think you might have listened to the wrong people’s (lying) grumbles. I had an eccentric great aunt who never watched the BBC on principle. One of her sisters never watched the BBC’s rival – ITV – for equally absurd reasons. And one of their brothers wouldn’t watch any television at all – he also refused to have a telephone.
Their other brothers and sisters were free of such ridiculous prejudices and watched whatever programmes they happened to like, whatever channel they were on, which inevitably included the BBC. They’re all dead now, but 99.99% of the population of Britain continues to agree with the more sane part of that family.
Almost everyone in Britain complains about paying for the TV licence – and some ingenuously use the “even if I don’t watch the BBC” argument…just before they start talking about what’s happening to so-and-so on one of the BBC’s soap operas. All of those people appreciate the fact that they can watch a program with no annoying commercial breaks – unless, like George, they need to go to the bathroom.
As for TV detector vans, I Googled that and found that the BBC is still peddling that myth – and it is a myth. No one I know has ever been caught, or has ever seen, or has ever heard of anyone seeing a TV detector van. I’m sure they exist somewhere, otherwise they’d be forced to stop lying, but that’s not how the system really works. I should know – I was caught and fined years ago when I got my first TV set, without paying the licence.
If you buy a TV second hand from a friend, they will never catch you. If you buy it from a shop – you’re on record and if you haven’t got a licence, you’ll be visited. But paying a tax for national, international and local TV and radio that can’t be forced to drop a story just because it offends a particular corporation seems pretty reasonable to me. Commercial TV isn’t free anyway – you pay the “tax” in the increased price of the products that were advertised.
But paying a tax for national, international and local TV and radio that can’t be forced to drop a story just because it offends a particular corporation seems pretty reasonable to me.
Of course, the BBC bends over backwards to appease Muslim audiences and does everything it can to demonize Israel. On your side of the Atlantic, that might play well, I guess.
…unless, like George, they need to go to the bathroom.
Because, of course, only our chimpy moron president ever ever needs to go to the bathroom, right?
From perusing your comment, Cat, I think a bathroom break would do you some good. Not your plumbing more than likely, not your city’s sewwer system I’m sure — but you, definitely.
I lived in Germany for 5 years and watched Satellite TV without ever paying their stupid TV tax.
I have, on the other hand, seen their TV detector vans on the road. They are yellow VW or Mercedes vans with funky antennas on the roof.
I seem to have dreamed that JayTea was BBC’ed, As I lay there in bed.. enjoying a sleep that rarely visits those who seek it, I have this sudden awareness that finally recognition was granted to a man whose name is reflective of a nation’s traditional beverage.
So who can trust anyone in the media i mean they have their lord haw haw living right in london
Wow, they mentioned me too. I’m flattered!