They Can Run And They Can Hide But The Note Takers Never Forget

Michael Hedges December 12, 2019 Follow on Twitter

Politicians can be excused, somewhat, for constituent promises in the heat of a campaign. After all, the happiness of voters and supporters is destiny. Some supporters have special requirements that give certain benefits and, unlike the average voter, they never forget or give up. When those demands intend to upend public broadcasting they run headlong into a different special relationship.

This week, while on the campaign trail, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, typically, made an off-handed claim that should his Conservative Party hold parliamentary power they would be “looking at” funding for public broadcaster BBC. The comment, widely reported, followed an embarrassing moment, also widely reported, in which PM Johnson was caught gaping by a photo of a child with pneumonia sleeping on the floor of a National Health Service (NHS) facility, proper beds being unavailable.

After first saying he was “under pressure not to extemporise policy on the hoof,” reported The Guardian (December 9), he went on to question the “kind of approach to funding a TV media organisation still makes sense in the long term given the way other media organisations manage to fund themselves. How long can you justify a system whereby everybody who has a TV has to pay to fund a particular set of TV and radio channels?” When pressed, he offered that “the BBC is not going to be privatized.” When news reporting earlier described a Conservative Party plan to off-load the NHS to US healthcare companies as part of trade considerations, PM Johnson claimed privatizing the UK’s nationwide health service was not going to happen.

The photo of the child sleeping on the hospital floor was published by Daily Mirror and the question about it posed by ITV reporter Joe Pike, after which PM Johnson grabbed and pocketed Mr. Pike’s mobile phone. Earlier PM Johnson refused to be interviewed by BBC One’s Andrew Neil, considered the broadcasters toughest interviewer. And then he ducked ITVs veritable soft-ball thrower Piers Morgan, hiding in an industrial refrigerator. Like most populist politicians he seeks refuge from tough questions - and not-so-tough - then complains about news coverage.

The BBC’s funding, not to forget organization, has long been a favorite target of the right-wing Conservative Party. Some voters, certainly, resent paying the compulsory household license fee. But the thrust for shrinking, squeezing or even eliminating the BBC has come from certain newspaper proprietors, grousing loudly to the politicians they favor. For all the howling, the effect on the BBC’s operation has been less than critics expected as most UK residents find the public broadcaster just dandy; two-thirds (68%) satisfied with BBC TV output, 75% with BBC Radio channels, according to a 2018 study conducted by media regulator OFCOM.

Public broadcasters are often criticized by competing publishers and broadcasters who have the ear of populist politicians. Some get a pounding. A case in point is Danish public broadcaster DR. When a populist government made its funding and operation a major campaign issue. Last year the populist Danish People’s Party (DF) forced draconian budget and operational cuts, including a significant relocation from Copenhagen to a rural location. The Culture Ministry also planned to end the public broadcasting household license fee.

That changed this past summer as Danish voters turned away the right-wing, populist tide. Newly appointed Culture Minister Joy Mogensen began unravelling the previous government’s Media Agreement. Funding was restored, even with a bonus. While the entire Media Agreement will be negotiated next year, the Ministry of Culture now allows operational decisions to be made by DR’s Radio and TV Board, preserving the arms-length independence of the public broadcaster.

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