A while back I warned a couple of media chums in the US that the BBC would come gunning for them. They laughed. I hate to sound smug, but they’re starting their push.
Still, it’s not all plain sailing. Take the news (my particular interest) – when you’re launching a neutral, impartial news service in the United States then surely you want to launch it by emphasising your neutrality and impartiality?
This is how one BBC exec announced the move:
“I think with George W. Bush’s approval rating at 29 per cent, having a news broadcast with a neutral, British, BBC approach is well-timed,” Garth Ancier, president of BBC America, told the Financial Times.
What’s George W. Bush’s approval rating got to do with it? The implication is that because the President is taking a public opinion bath there’s an opportunity for the BBC. That may be a good message for the Guardian to send out as it attempts to capture disillusioned American liberals, but it isn’t a good message for the BBC to be sending out.
Imagine if you changed the name Bush to Tony Blair, or Gordon Brown – point taken?
One response to “Bush’s misfortune is BBC’s opportunity?”
Adrian, Looks like you understand the BBC’s hubris well, and found a non sequitor re: Bush. But let me add that the last thing U.S. news consumers want is yet another left-of-center news network that mistakenly thinks it is impartial, as the Beeb’s own internal report informs us. More than 80% of our folks do not believe our news media is unbiased, and they will immediately detect BBC’s “liberalism” as that word is understood in America. Not to say that the BBC won’t be able to do some business here, but they would only be taking another chunk out of the hide of the reeling mainstream media and not be appealing to a new audience or an unmet need. (Steve Boriss, The Future of News)