Abysmal BBC
Sir: How very right Paul Johnson is about the BBC and its abysmal standards (Broad- casting, 10 November). Despite its shud- ders of horror at the suggestion of advertis- ing, the fact is that the BBC already advertises extensively. The start of every programme is delayed by advertisements, just like ITV, every trick of which the BBC copies. The only difference is that on BBC all the advertisements are about the BBC.
Paul Johnson and Christopher Fildes will resume their columns in the New Year.
They clearly have no objection to advertis- ing qua advertising; merely to soliciting payment for advertising ordinary products. High standards? The BBC has no stan- dards of its own, merely those of its American masters whose 'cultural colony' it has become. There are many thousands who never watch BBC at all, and I have never been able to understand why they should have to pay through the nose for something they never see and do not want to. The BBC should be required to sell its products like everybody else — let it get what money it can from those who wish to see its Americanese rubbish and are willing to pay to do so. That is what makes the BBC shudder — not some aesthetic objec- tion to advertising, but the prospect of actually having to earn its living, instead of existing effortlessly on what amounts to National Assistance.
Colquhoun
47 Cosham Road, Portsmouth, Hants
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