Vision On (or off)

That veritable British broadcasting institution the BBC has been making the news itself of late. Its decision not to broadcast the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for aid to Gaza the other week was taken because of fears such a broadcast may breach the Corporations strict rules on impartiality. The commercial stations all went ahead with the appeal for humanitarian assistance - with the notable exception of SKY (although I suspect their decision was more to do with Rupert Murdoch's business interests in the USA being affected if he was perceived to be siding with the Palestinians) But it's the BBC who have taken most of the flak although there have been a multitude of reports on BBC News, on television and on-line, about the row which seems to me to have defeated the purpose of not broadcasting the appeal in the first place.

In the wake of the Jonathan Ross fiasco, Auntie Beeb is falling over herself not to offend anyone. Yes, there is a clause in the BBC's charter, reviewed by the government every ten years or so, that requires the Corporation to be impartial or face possible legal consequences. But it seems to me the BBC breaches impartiality on other occasions and it doesn't appear to be an issue.

Take the aforementioned Jonathan Ross for example (please, somebody take him) Ross infamously insulted the grand-daughter of actor Andrew Sachs on a radio show last October and the ensuing furore resulted in Ross being suspended from the BBC for three months. His return last month was trumpeted as a major news story by the Corporation, with coverage given on BBC News programmes both on its terrestrial BBC 1 and digital BBC News24 as well as substantial coverage on the BBC News website. The BBC reported that people queued outside Television Centre for hours and that the audience welcomed the return of Ross (who returned to insulting people on his BBC Radio 2 show a couple of days later)

Now I don't doubt a lot of people were glad to see Ross return and he does have a huge fan base. But, equally, many people wanted Ross sacked from the BBC and despise his crude style and cringing self-importance. So where was the BBC's impartiality here? I didn't see much evidence of it - but, of course, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross is a huge ratings winner for the Corporation....

In my view, the Beeb typifies standards in this country these days. There's a general dumbing down in broadcasting and anything of quality the BBC does make tends to be shunted on to its digital station BBC Four. It might also wish to consider investing in its weather forecasting technology. Twice this week we were warned that severe snow falls would affect Edinburgh. On both Monday and Wednesday night we were told to expect several inches of the white stuff to fall overnight. Many schools in the borders didn't open on the basis of this forecast only to find there was little snow on Tuesday and Thursday morning - and it was raining. Saturday, we were told, would be dry, sunny but cold. As I write this blog early on Saturday morning it's snowing quite heavily in Dalkeith...

Another example of the BBC incapable of handling adverse conditions...