BBC vs the Private Sector

Many people in the U.S. believe that nothing can be run as good as when it is in the hands of the private sector, and that when the government runs anything it does it inefficiently, and it never works.
Having grown up in a household that had its ties to the UK the BBC has always been a reliable source of information.
The British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC as it is commonly known, has always had a reputation of being unbiased. It is said that during World War II the German Army and therefore the troops would follow the BBC because of the reliability of its news.
They arguably have the best documentaries for TV, the quality of their programming is very high, they have qualified reports across the globe. CNN’s concept was based on the BBC.
My father-in-law was for a period of time press secretary for the Armed Forces in Argentina, and he once told me how surprised he was that the reporter of the BBC spoke Spanish fluently. He also said that this reporter had told him that he had come from another assignment in China, and that he spoke several languages. If we look at the history behind many of the reporters that CNN employs many of them had their origins in the BBC.
The BBC in the USA has a couple of channels on TV, one being BBC NEWS, a 24 hour news channel.
I mentioned earlier the documentaries, if we look closely many of the programming of the Discovery Channel in the United States is of the BBC. If we try to find DVDs or Blu Rays about nature such as Planet Earth, or Human Planet they were done by the BBC.
As far as programming, most of the PBSs across this country play British Comedy, the majority, if not all of them, are done by the BBC.
The number 1 program in the world, Top Gear, is done by the BBC, and its viewed across the world, including Africa.
Now one can say what is the point of this blog, and that is very simple, the BBC is a public service broadcaster, this means that it is funded by the public through license fees. Its autonomous, with no advertising, similar to what PBS, or for those who don’t know Public Broadcasting Service, would be in the US. It is the largest broadcaster in the world with around 23000 employees.
This goes to show that PBSs or public funded broadcasters are not a dirty word, and instead of being defunded they should be promoted.
When we watch TV or listen to private run radio stations not only do we listen to corporate advertisement, but in many instances there are many issues that are never addressed. Most of the TV and radio stations are owned by large corporations, who have their own agenda, and who push, in many instances, their own philosophy to their audience. We can look at both sides of the aisle, Fox News is with no doubt the spokesperson of the Republican Party, with conservatives conducting their shows, inviting only people who agreed with their views. The last liberal that Fox News had on its staff was Alan Colmes, and he’s been gone for quite some time. Mitt Romney has not given any interviews to MSNBC, he talks primarily to Fox, and in a special occasions he’ll appear on CNN. Conservatives consider CNN liberal, although the network gave a free pass to the Bush Administration during the Iraq invasion and occupation. CNN is owned by Time Warner, a large corporation that no only owns magazines, but also a TV cable company. Now let us look at NBC, and their affiliates including MSNBC, they are owned by G.E. (General Electric), one of the largest corporations in the world, and for many years was also one of the biggest polluters. This is an issue that is rarely addressed on the network or its affiliates. ABC is owned by Disney. We know the size and penetration of the Disney conglomerate. CBS is owned by Viacom, another large conglomerate.
Private, as we can see, can have its other side as well, with fewer opinions and choices. Nobody says that the CCTV, or China Television, is the perfect model, but neither is a television, radio and newspaper market owned by a handful of conglomerates, because they will publish, discuss and report about the things that they have on their agenda.
A balanced alternative is many times a healthier alternative, even if it goes against our own views.