85 years of coverage: We should be proud of the BBC

Six years ago, the BBC ran an extensive campaign to promote its brand.  Unlike those of other broadcasters, the budget of this project wasn’t blown on paying C-list celebrities to stand in front of a camera and beg viewers to watch programmes.

Instead, they played thirty-second long highlights from the BBC’s recent history.  One ad featured a courageous BBC News team filming from a battlefield in Iraq.  Another replayed the dramatic winning moment from the previous year’s Wimbledon final.  My personal favourite showed a scene from a little-known BBC comedy commission called “The Office”.

These golden televisual titbits were followed consistently by a single, modest phrase; “this is what we do”.

And that is what they do.  The BBC has provided unbeatable coverage in every popular genre, across every mainstream medium, for over 85 years; comprehensive, impartial news coverage, the greatest live sporting events and ground-breaking entertainment commissions for the best part of a century.

All this comes at a considerable price for you and me, though.  A compulsory subscription fee is controversial in any economic climate, but with the current austere outlook, the TV license is more questioned than ever before.

Is £145.50 a steep fee?  Of course.  Is it worth it?  Undoubtedly.

However, open up some newspapers and you’ll probably read otherwise.  Vast numbers of commentators, on both the political left and right, like to criticise the BBC.  Scarcely does a day go by without an all-guns-blazing article throwing all it can against the broadcaster.

A friend suggested to me last week that those who are writing the most aggressive attacks on the organisation may be doing so because they have made unsuccessful job applications to it over the years.  This might be true, and I’m not afraid to admit that I’ve been turned down by the Beeb before.  Nonetheless, I still recognise that it’s a fantastic institution.

The latest example of a BBC-bashing vendetta was only a few weeks ago, as guns were aimed from every angle against the broadcaster, and shot quite a few times.  I admit that the BBC’s jubilee river pageant programme didn’t make for outstandingly interesting viewing.  It was the aftermath that I, personally, found fascinating.

“Annihilation” is the word that springs to mind.  The post-jubilee coverage in the press was pretty bizarre.  The criticisms of the BBC’s hours of live programming were lengthy, yet the actual coverage of most papers consisted of a single photo or two.

I would be lying if I said I was engulfed by the live broadcast coverage of the event.  However, eight hours of live, non-commercial television was placed under immense scrutiny by the same titles that took a few photos and wrote about what the Duchess of Cambridge was wearing.  It’s almost incomparable.

The BBC never responds, though.  It doesn’t send out its big names to scribble down aggressive editorials in response.  Instead, it lets the content do the talking.  And it wins.  Every single time, without fail.

This weekend, it was my honour to head to Hackney, as BBC Radio 1 put on its biggest ever event.  I wasn’t alone - 100,000 people joined me.  I saw Jay-Z, Kanye West, Jack White, Nero, will.i.am, Ed Sheeran and Kasabian for the grand sum of £2.50.

I explored the exhibition of contemporary arts with the knowledge that no other broadcaster on the planet would have the will or the ability to put together such a gigantic event for such a minute price.  It was nothing short of a spectacle to see so many young people having an amazing time.

Well over half a million viewers tuned in this weekend to watch performances in Hackney on BBC Three; an achievement for any digital channel.  When you consider the barrage of criticism the BBC faced after its jubilee coverage, one might expect people to have been queuing up to compliment it in the press after this weekend.  No such luck, I’m afraid.

Let me be one of the first in this environment to congratulate every single employee at the broadcaster who was involved in the project.  Be it breakfast DJ Chris Moyles, producer Helen, soundman Dan, or the hundreds of other staff members, they should feel immensely proud of the work they put in.

Let’s stop the mudslinging for a second.  Admitting that the BBC is a fantastic organisation is not voicing an opinion.  Whether you like it or not, it’s a fact.  I’d be saying precisely the same thing if it was a private organisation.

Next month, the world will be watching Britain through the British Broadcasting Corporation.  As the Olympic home broadcaster, the BBC will be showcased like never before.  I, for one, will be proud with the knowledge that a media organisation in my country is making such a great impression.

After all, this is what they do.  Day in, day out.

Callum Jones is a political journalist and editor of The Noticeboard Daily.

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• MC Miker G

  Re. your point about the rationale of the licence fee – you could say exactly the same things about the NHS, which is funded by tax. And, just like the National Health Service, our state broadcaster, the envy of the world, should be cherished and sheltered from the mad rush towards expensive private provision of everything. I’d rather we paid £3.5 billion p/a to the BBC than £35 billion p/a to Murdoch any day.

  Your points about “morality” and “trashy output” are just parochial personal judgements.

• Tam_the_Ranter

  Only the British would be so dumb as to pay £145.50 as price of their own brainwashing. The BBC is not and never has been impartial it exists solely as a propaganda tool of the Westminster Establishment to push their own agenda. You only have to look at the biased reporting currently being used in the middle east.
  A group of Syrian terrorists preparing IED’s to trap Government Troops GOOD !
  A group of Afghan patriots using IED’s to trap occupying forces BAD !
  It is not for nothing it is known as the BIGGOTED BROADCASTING CORPORATION

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Tom-Snood/100001220415608 Tom Snood

  The valuable content highlighted here would easily fit on half a channel. There is no excuse for a compulsory subscription to Celebs Prancing Around in Sequins, BBC3, endless soaps, lifestyle and cookery programmes. A (voluntary) subscription to a channel would drive up standards. But most important, the BBC economic model of Pay Up and Shut Up is no longer sustainable.

• rmpittamplanetearth

  BBC1 has to be ‘popular’ to keep the mouth breathers happy – they pay for the licence fee too. You’re also getting BBC2, BBC4, Radio 2,3,4 and 6 music (priceless). ITV has (had) one SHOW a week worth watching (Harry Hill). The corporate whores even tried to trash the News at Ten. Like the free market model? Go to America and look for “high brow” TV – if you find any it was made by the BBC. Oh, and people who watch daytime TV get what they deserve!

• hectorsmum

  I very much doubt that Tom. I am older than you think. The word is Probably by the way. My name isn’t Hector either.

• hectorsmum

  Okay Stephanie, mine was Star Trek. We all have our favourites.

• rmpittamplanetearth

  Revolutionary socialists with spittle flecked beards complaining about BBC right wing bias on here should check out the Daily Mail/ Torygraph websites – where you’ll find crypto fascists with spittle flecked blazers complaining about BBC left wing bias . . .

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Martin/100001656357022 Chris Martin

  But on your argument we would pay for everything through tax. The BBC is just a provider of TV shows and news – anyone can do that and better! In reality how great is much BBC coverage and TV. It is hugely bloated and feather-bedded. At least you have the choice not to pay Mr Murdoch, please grant me the same privilege not to pay for a service like the BBC. The idea that the NHS is still admired is laughable.

• Old Git Tom

  My apologies for thinking you Hector Smum & misjudging your age. On the other hand, you need to rethink, I think. The BBC is a one-off cultural institution. It is not subject to the same cash transaction mentality as, say, buying soap powder over a grocer’s counter. That is the mindset of much of philistine Britain, as represented by Mrs Thatcher & her many fans. Her dad used to run a grocer’s shop, & Napoleon called Britain a ‘Little nation of shopkeepers’. Alas, how true. OGT

• http://www.grow-connect.com/ Placement Agent

  Great blog . Thanks !