The BBC has launched a fevered campaign against any interference in its business and has brought out the big guns to fend off its ‘enemies’ as it calls them.
One of those is David Dimbleby who has not only been given room in the Radio Times to grace us with his views on how important the BBC is to us all but has also been sent into battle on our screens as well with this very self-serving piece of propaganda from the BBC…
The BBC at War, Presented by Jonathan Dimbleby
An enthralling series exploring how the BBC fought not only Hitler but also the British government to become the institution it is today. Hailed and derided in equal measure, the BBC in 1939 had yet to seal its reputation. With the advent of war, the corporation found itself thrust into a battle against the Nazis and the machinations of the British government.
Jonathan Dimbleby uncovers the compelling story of how the BBC went into battle – against Hitler and Whitehall’s ministers – and its part in the social revolution the war provoked.
Jonathan Dimbleby reveals how the BBC prepared for the first broadcast war and fought off government attempts to control it.
I think you get the idea…the BBC not only fought the Nazis (LOL), but fought off the British government as well.
That’ll be the BBC that banned Churchill from the airwaves in the run up to the war in case he upset Herr Hitler.
Dimbleby explains why the programme was necessary…
“For me, regardless of what the BBC becomes, [The BBC at War] was a reminder of how the BBC became a globally and nationally trusted institution. It was in the back of my mind, not the foreground. I thought it was a very good story to tell.”
The trouble is if you have read any personal history of the war, or read the Mass Observation reports, you will know that the BBC was far from trusted and respected, not by the Public and not by the troops….all too often seen to be siding with the Nazis (no change there then) and more concerned with getting a scoop or a story than in security which put the troops in danger…again no change there….Snowden/Iraq/Afghanistan.
This programme is blatantly a piece of pro-BBC propaganda not unlike those war time propaganda films that showed plucky little Britain battling against the Nazi horde…only this time its the plucky little BBC against those nasty Tories and the ‘powerful vested interests’ that want to turn Britain into a cultural desert….or rather that’s what we’re supposed to infer from the BBC’s not so subtle nudge…..a ‘warning from history’ the BBC might like to call it.
With this programme Dimbleby ironically shows why the BBC can’t be trusted and should be reined in.
Just like the pamphleteers and independent printers of yesteryear I’d just like to say that the message that blogs like yours are spreading across the internet do have an effect and are very worthwhile. In the past, pamphleteers like Thomas Paine, John Wilkes, William Cobbett and more had a huge sway on public opinion by printing their views and exposing the truth. They influenced and changed the course of history. These blogs on the internet all do the same. Speaking for myself (and many others) they are a priceless resource.
I used to love the BBC, I grew up thinking it was a noble non-commercial organisation that could fight government manipulation and other evils. In fact, I still think it delivers quality on many levels. On nearly every level, that is, apart from the level of truth. I don’t trust anything the BBC tells me any more and I regard it as an enemy alas.
Same here, ‘More Like The Soviet Bloc Every Day’, same here .
Good post.
Thanks! Even though I don’t live in the UK is it still okay to sign your petition?
I watched the programme last night and what a disappointment it turned out to be.
If Dimbleby was not mentioning his father (at least 20 times), then he was justifying why the BBC should report on a Allied military defeat and why the Government was wrong to censor the BBC.
I did find it rather baffling when after spending the majority of the programme attacking the government for not being 100% transparent, he then defended the BBC allowing itself to be stopped from reporting on the atrocities committed by the Soviets, this one example highlights the hypocrisy of the BBC….if it is left-wing government / regime that is committing criminal acts than don’t report it, if it is right-wing than clearly attack, attack and attack.
100 % agree. So much P…… & Wind.
The BBC raising the joys of the right kind of propaganda, namely theirs, without irony, is extremely brave.
Especially as so many ‘views my own’ editorial staff are rivalling George Galloway on twitter, blocking any who ask awkward questions on what they edit in, edit out and outright make up.
Meanwhile, over at the BBC Complaints and FoI departments…
I remember how they kept telling the Argies what to do – and what WE were likely to do – during the Falklands War. (Looks like Channel 4 could go “private”. Lets hope it happens to the BBC to).
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Pedro, like you I remember the bbc’s perfidy in reporting on the Falkland Islands war. They did the same during the Iraq war. Mr Dimbleby would serve his socialist cause better if he kept his opinions to himself because there are probably more people than he’d care to acknowledge who think he and his claque are well past their sell-by date. The bbc’s enemies, as he regards them, are primarily the ordinary licence fee payers and they have to win otherwise the bbc will get even more extreme in pushing its socialist agenda. That the bbc regards those who oppose it as enemies says a lot about the mentality at the top of this dysfunctional organisation.
jic
The Falklands?
The BBC were wearing green before that in Northern Ireland.
The patriotic Orangemen are still painted subhuman today by the BBC.
Sorry `Vengeance is mine` …. I think you will find that the BBC are no friends of the majority of the catholic community either, thier support of IRA murderers in Storemont and promotion of endless inquiries relating to British Army supposed war crimes make me sick… I`m glad there is some semblance of peace in the province but let`s face it, until all terrorist affiliates are removed from Government positions ( Both Sides ) and become answerable to the people of N.Ireland and Justice there will never ever be a lasting peace there… I`m glad I chose not to resettle in Derry after the ceasefire… even though all my family moved back there I stayed here, all that sectarianism bullsh*t pi$$es me off…. FYI my Grandfather fought in the Great War with the Gordon Highlanders and my mother was in the Wrens not all Irish Catholics resent being British you know….
jic
Another comment, I did not get past your first sentence earlier. I will now deal with your ending.
“dysfunctional organisation”
The BBC believes it is functioning according to plan.
Can’t pretend to have read it, but I’m pretty sure Magna Carta will not include the line, or even its subtle interpretation: ‘….it gives every boy and girl the right to school, no matter what country they come from’ although some little innocent was persuaded to utter this calumny on today’s BBC Breakfast. Catch ’em young, eh?
I am disinclined to listen to what either of the Dimblebys have to say on the subject of the BBC or anything it has done in the past, much less believe them. After all, they have the BBC to thank for everything in their lives from cradle to grave. Literally.
Exactly. The Dimblebys and the rest are long ago bought and paid for . The TV tax is indefensible and they know it. All this rubbish is designed to obscure this reality. This is 2015. A regressive tax like the TV tax is not acceptable. Anyway technology provides a well tried alternative.
Who could ever tire of David and Jonathan Dimbleby giving us little impromptu Richard Dimbleby Memorial Lectures on the great benefits of BBC nepotism
Beauty.
Last night’s propaganda piece from Jonathan Dimbleby was dull, flaccid, vacuous and entirely unsuited to the medium. It would have worked far better as a radio programme. In essence, it was little more than a puff-piece designed to ‘nudge’ viewers into accepting the impermeable ‘excellence’ of the BBC as an institution ahead of what it fears will be a scrap with the new Media and Culture Select Committee over the BBC’s very right to exist as a publicly-funded broadcaster.
Naked propaganda, presented by one the BBC’s reliably useful idiots. Don’t be fooled.
I suppose the only saving grace, Phil, is that 90% of the population were watching ITV anyway. With the alternative being that absurdly self-indulgent and costly ‘Harry Potter for Grownups’, the entertainment channels would have seemed the logical preference.
I was watching this….
http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/itv-encore-acquires-swedish-drama-jordskott
Quali’iy…
Not a follower of Harry Potter, but was that a repeat? That’s most of what we seem to get, with massive dollops of bland, boring SOAPS-still I suppose apart from Spring Watch, Summer Watch, Autumn Watch together with Countryfile with John Craven what esle is there!
Did anyone count how many times the printed media was bracketed under the term “press barons” rather than something less pejorative? They were clearly being portrayed as the Sheriffs of Nottingham to the BBC’s Robin Hood. Lucky us, having the BBC to protect us from Big Media (/sarc)
Tokalo
We do not need (/sarc), we have command of the English language.
Which, you will have noticed, enables us to rebut the bollox of the EU funded, Guardian trained, BBC employed, professional propagandists and perpetually lying Marxists who infest this site with their treasonous nonsense, political insanity and historical invention: and send them away with fleas in their ears.
Which is admittedly not a totally satisfactory outcome for me, I would prefer them to receive in their ears nine grams of lead.
It’s a Tory Government that continues to force Tories to pay for this anti-Tory media organisation, with the threat of imprisonment even if they promise the magistrate that they will never watch the BBC channels ever again.
One idea is that instead of fines and imprisonment, they could install a Block on the BBC Channels on Freeview for non-licence fee payers.
Strange too that the BBC are forever banging on about inequality and executive pay etc., and somehow forget to mention the huge salaries paid to their own executives and presenters – the Dimblebys, for example.
Because radio transmission was still new and TV picture transmission was almost mind-blowing back in the 1930’s, the government was always going to hinder its potential for fear of losing control to anarchy. Radio was like the communication equivalent of the nuclear bomb!
The Post Office had ownership over everything to do with communication (Morse code telegrams and such like), and the whole radio spectrum.
I have to say, given that the radio spectrum was in the hands of government anyway, there was probably a good reason for a few people to fight for liberty of the airwaves (if one can ignore their faults).
I don’t suppose the beebyanka is all that quick, these days, to acknowledge that Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, in “1984”, was based directly on his own experiences in wartime broadcasting.
Speaking of the BBC ‘fighting’ Hitler, don’t forget the Falklands where the BBC also bravely fought for the Argentinians against British aggression by announcing a British attack at Goose Green before it had even taken place.
Any British casualties that occurred could very well have been caused by the BBC revealing our plans to the enemy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Goose_Green
After reading through the comments it seems that others are aware of this, which is great. I was too young at the time but I read it in Max Hastings book on the war.