This is quite a puzzle - but I'd vote yes- its the mass media stupid but for different dumbing down reasons

we know that in America commercial broadcast media has made speech anything but free and anything but true (see thecorporation.com); we know too that there's hardly a second on American tv that makes someone's learning/productivity greater (well what was the last program that you would have justified in terms of a true learning experience)

alas poor Britain; you would think that with every family pating over 200 US dollars a year that the BBC would at least care about the people ; but it doesnt it panders to government (as we can see in the way the whole weapons of mass destruction went down Hutton's tube) and it fails to develop the sorts of inteligenvce formats that could help the people debate where all there money is going:

where did pensions ogo? where did health care go? where did schooling go?

what are some programnes that an intelligent BBC would cover? where did world development aid go? where did public order go?

How about trend news? Keep an eye on what five year trends change alarmingly and then investigate them with a documentary that starts a public conversation goindg and continuous longafter into a vibrand web debate. If the BBC did this proactively, we wouldnt have to wait for MPs to report the alarming staistics on how much has been spent recently on making us addicts to global pharma companies - surely something that a BBC debate in time could have halted before we wasted so much money and health on this rot posted by ..., 1:17 PM  permalink