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Medicus est in Tardis sedet
Apr. 12th, 2008 11:16 pmMuch approval of Who Four-point-Two earlier ... o'course it was no Blink but then I fear we shall not see that calibre of episode again, not while RTD draws breath.
I saw a comment earlier on another LJ about how there were loads of in-jokes that you will have got if you took the Cambridge Latin Course at any point. I did, and I got them and appreciated them.
But then I got thinking. There are a lot of Idiots out there these days, the sort of people who like their news spoon-fed to them by Alastair Stewart, the sort of people who are seriously thinking of voting for Boris Johnson in the mayoral elections because they think he's a jolly good laugh. These Idiots have a tendency to pop up in debate and make a big show of accusing the BBC's current affairs coverage of being too focused on London, too liberal, too out of touch with normal people...
Well, the BBC is liberal, it can't be denied, and hallelujah to that. Journalism and media attracts that type, happily, at least in Britain.
Now we know that - with some caveats - impartiality in current affairs broadcasting is not to be confused with a liberal agenda. Impartiality merely reflects reality; which is to say that an enlightened, rational, humanist outlook more often gets to the truth of the matter than an outright socialist one, or a rabid conservative one.
But the Idiots don't get that, they think that they're clever, think they've caught the BBC out.
They haven't.
In their rush to condemn its politics, they forgot that the BBCs news output is not the same as its light entertainment output. And this is where I see a disconnect; because by playing up to the Latin-learning middle classes the BBC effectively shoots itself in the foot and alienates a whole section of its viewing public. It's just proven the Idiots right.
And the really clever bit is because it's an in-joke the people who never studied Latin don't realise they're missing the joke!
Conclusion ... the BBC is very clearly slanted towards a liberal, middle class outlook, but not in the way that the Idiots think it is...
Dangerous.
I saw a comment earlier on another LJ about how there were loads of in-jokes that you will have got if you took the Cambridge Latin Course at any point. I did, and I got them and appreciated them.
But then I got thinking. There are a lot of Idiots out there these days, the sort of people who like their news spoon-fed to them by Alastair Stewart, the sort of people who are seriously thinking of voting for Boris Johnson in the mayoral elections because they think he's a jolly good laugh. These Idiots have a tendency to pop up in debate and make a big show of accusing the BBC's current affairs coverage of being too focused on London, too liberal, too out of touch with normal people...
Well, the BBC is liberal, it can't be denied, and hallelujah to that. Journalism and media attracts that type, happily, at least in Britain.
Now we know that - with some caveats - impartiality in current affairs broadcasting is not to be confused with a liberal agenda. Impartiality merely reflects reality; which is to say that an enlightened, rational, humanist outlook more often gets to the truth of the matter than an outright socialist one, or a rabid conservative one.
But the Idiots don't get that, they think that they're clever, think they've caught the BBC out.
They haven't.
In their rush to condemn its politics, they forgot that the BBCs news output is not the same as its light entertainment output. And this is where I see a disconnect; because by playing up to the Latin-learning middle classes the BBC effectively shoots itself in the foot and alienates a whole section of its viewing public. It's just proven the Idiots right.
And the really clever bit is because it's an in-joke the people who never studied Latin don't realise they're missing the joke!
Conclusion ... the BBC is very clearly slanted towards a liberal, middle class outlook, but not in the way that the Idiots think it is...
Dangerous.