Fall of the mighty

For the first time in my life, I advised a student to not watch the BBC, but use CNN, this week.

Since having access to BBC on cable ( BBC World and Prime) here in Hungary I have become steadily disenchanted and regularly annoyed.

The thing that has finally pushed me over the edge is the Winter Olympics - and the attrocious coverage on the BBC. It seems as though the BBC is too mean to fork out money to get the rights to show images from the games and so what coverage there has been has been imageless for the most part - Amazing, a TV station, image driven, trying to report on what has to be the biggest sporting event at this time, without pictures.

I suspect CNN is constrained by similar restrictions - but they have managed to get live reporters at the games and whenever they show a result illustrate it with still photographs. And what great photographs they have been on the whole.

In fact, the stills are far more illustrative of both the sport and the personalities than video would be.

Not only that, but the BBC persists on leading with football and other sports, principally male, first, before the Olympics. Why?

On complaining about the male-football dominance on what is supposed to be a report on "All the International Sport", the unanswer 'Editotial decision' came back: Exactly! What sort of Editor, driven by what factors and under what constraints?

Working in an internatinal situation, seeing the terrible sports coverage, and susspecting motives and motivations, has made me look again at the rest of the coverage: And the BBC is found wanting.

No report on the Russian film industry awards (editorial decision) and a report focussing on the anti-Iran complaints at the Beril Film Festival but nothing else (despite the festival's high standing and wide ranging programme - which I know from the DW televison channel - who incidentally frequently report in greater depth on the arts scene in the UK than the BBC ever does - a good report on the Brit Awards this week for example).

An obsession with events in the Middle East which, if it is not political certainly looks it: I hear the cry, it is what people want to hear about: I reply, no, it is all they know about because that is all you report about. I suspect political interference, but will concede it could just be money and resource limitations - the BBC can't afford to report seriously in anything other than a couple of areas, so pretend thesea re the important ones.

Inaccessibility is also I suppose the excuse for none-reporting many of the things that are happening in the world today - Having seen the devestation of the floods in Europe last year, where far more damage to people's livelihoods was done in Romania tha Austria, and far more images shown and reporting done of Austria, I only despare.

CNN is not perfect - but at least treats a wider range of issues, frequently in more depth, although not always with my point of view (which is a good thing). DW is a far more reliable source of information on what is actually happening here in Europe - and again, has great Arts coverage. It also does not pretend to be more than it is.

So, BBC, move over - my students will be told, from now on, to watch you only if there is something special on - like the Imagination programme, or the report on Med. Sans. Frontier.