Skip to content
openDemocracy
Sign in Subscribe

The good, the bad, and Corbynmania: how to defend the BBC

Not all defences of the BBC are good. What can the Corbyn insurgency teach us about how to make a progressive case for the corporation?

By A.M. Poppy
Published:
Share
19621586548_b5dd8c7878_z.jpg
19621586548_b5dd8c7878_z.jpg

Image: Flickr / JasnThe threat to the BBC is being conjured up ever more fearsomely. My blood ran cold reading Will Hutton in the Observer earlier this month: “[to] viscerally hate the BBC has become a badge of what it means to be a Tory… It is a Tory’s sacred duty… to pulverise it into insignificance.” 

In response to this threat Save the BBC (Save our BBC), BECTU (Save the BBC), 38 degrees (Protect Our BBC) and AVAAZ (Save the BBC) have all issued their similarly titled petitions, and a range of creatives, celebs, and well-meaning fans have rallied to the cause.

I salute these efforts. God knows I love Auntie more than most. My problem is with how the support is expressed, and the reluctance to envisage the BBC afresh.  

This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. If you have any queries about republishing please contact us. Please check individual images for licensing details.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0