Coudn’t Resist This

Posted on October 9, 2007
Filed Under What's New |

I mean getting back to what’s fundamentally wrong with television. I couldn’t resist because I’m back involved in TV again and once again I’m hearing those old chestnuts: TV is a simple medium, TV doesn’t deal well with complex ideas.

I grew up with television that transmitted the most complex ideas. I learned from programmes like Horizon on the BBC how to understand a broad range of science subjects and I got my first taste of unconventional views from Arena, the BBC’s arts programme. It was one of those series that convinced me I needed always to be refreshing how I think - remember the Ford Anglia as a work of art? I’ve written on things like classifieds as works of art directly as a result of that. Television taught me to exercise my imagination as well as my sense of decency.

I’ve noticed it is really hard to get TV execs involved in this kind of debate - my view is they have terminally damaged the medium and they should come along and talk about that.

I’ve tried a few times getting Richard Sambrook to visit again and give his views but to no avail. Richard is a senior BBC figure who blogs but I’m not sure he is in conversations that matter.

This is the most censorious of media and sometimes it is just impossible to say what goes on it, in other words the pressure to self-censor is stronger than I’ve experienced in any other field. The reality is, and state broadcasters like the BBC and others need to reflect on it, openness is your first virtue and integrity should be up there as well.

Comments

Leave a Reply