Op Ed: BBC

In the United Kingdom, people have to pay for a TV license in order to use TV equipment, which funds the BBC. If you are not familiar with the BBC, it is the world's largest broadcasting group and produces material that is aired on Discovery, Animal Planet, HD Theater, Science Channel and many other TV, radio and online resources. The BBC is a public corporation, meaning that it is neither owned privately nor by the state; it is governed by the BBC Trust, a body which is intended to act in the best interest of the license fee payers. Using TV equipment in the UK is illegal without a license, which makes "license fee payers" more or less synonymous with "the public."

If the BBC Trust is supposed to act on the public's best interest, then what is the best interest that they are acting on right now? The BBC Worldwide branch that we watch here in the states is a commercial branch, restricted from any funding by the license fees from the UK, but does the BBC have any guidance, as the parent company, to ensure that its children have the same aim of "informing, educating and entertaining?" Does the commercialization of a company mean that it must ditch its values?

Discovery has an entire week set aside every summer, "Shark Week," during which ocean conservation and sustainability are stressed. Then on commercial break, we are reminded to "Watch Deadliest Catch, the #1 rated reality TV series, Mondays at 9." I cannot help but assume that the seven or eight massive ships that are followed on the show, as they are loading hundreds of crab crates onto the deck, each crate containing hundreds of crabs, could possibly be overfishing the Bering Sea. Maybe. On Blue Planet and Planet Earth, concerns about deforestation and the dangers of global warming, ecosystem collapse, etc. are expressed. The creation of Axe Men and Extreme Loggers, two entire programs designed to glorify the logging and clearing of large sections of land, suggests that ratings trump values and morals when it comes to programming decisions.

Media has incredible power for raising (and lowering) awareness of issues that affect its viewers; it seems to me that the BBC Trust is charged with raising that awareness, but this ethic seems to only apply in the UK. The value of a program that is intended to serve the best interests of the public cannot be based on ratings, regardless of funding source. The BBC says to save the oceans but cannot prioritize it over ratings; they say to save the forests but love to see them being destroyed twice a week in high definition. If the BBC Trust is to fulfill its responsibilities to the best interest of its license fee payers, it needs to identify that there is no difference between the UK public and the international public; "highest-rated" does not mean "best," even (especially) in a commercial market.