In America, the only television channel that we have that’s remotely like the BBC is perhaps PBS. PBS runs on both private donations, grants from non-profits and foundations, and a certain percentage of it’s operating budget comes from government grants. Whereas (I think, I’m sure the British Celebitches will correct me), the BBC channels have operating budgets mostly from the government and some from advertisers.

In George W. Bush’s America, PBS was lambasted, and the government tried to influence PBS programming however they could. Several good journalists and producers were pushed out, some programs suddenly became a bit more pro-Bush. The controversies were all about politics and who could say what about the administration. This seems much more dire than the current controversy raging at the BBC right now.

The controversy is about U2. Apparently, U2 has been getting hours of free promotion on the BBC, for no reason other than U2 has an album coming out. The BBC website has been offering tickets to U2 concerts, and basically the programming on BBC stations and radio has been all-U2, all the time. The Daily Telegraph has more:

The BBC has been accused of giving the rock band U2 excessive levels of publicity ahead of the release of their new album. Critics claim that the corporation has handed the group unprecedented amounts of publicity worth millions of pounds using fee-payers money.

The Irish band is involved in a string of special shows and appearances with the broadcaster this month, relentlessly plugged through adverts using the slogan “U2=BBC”. The corporation has even set up a dedicated part of its website offering tickets and links to the group’s official site.

However, politicians have raised concerns that the BBC is letting itself be used to promote the band’s new album No Line On The Horizon, which comes out on March 2.

Tory MP Nigel Evans, who sits on the culture, media and sport select committee, said it was “the sort of publicity money can’t buy”. He told the Daily Mail: “Why should licence fee-payers shoulder the cost of U2’s publicity?”

U2 are to make appearances or be featured on several shows this week including programmes on BBC1, BBC2, Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 4. This includes a ‘Live Lounge’ session on Jo Whiley’s Radio 1 show and an interview on Chris Evans’s Radio 2 show, both on Friday.

The Dublin four-piece will also perform on Jonathan Ross’s BBC1 chat show, and there will be a special of BBC2’s The Culture Show tonight dedicated to their music. They have already appeared on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show this week and will also appear on Radio 4 arts programme Front Row tonight.

The deal does not involve any financial agreement beyond the group being paid a standard Musicians’ Union rate for their performances, but the BBC is funding the shows and publicity for them. One viewer complained on the corporation’s message-boards: “As a publicly funded broadcaster, why is the BBC plugging the new U2 album?”

Another added: “New albums come out all the time, but we are all supposed to be interested in this one for some reason.”

A BBC spokesman said all the shows had to conform to editorial guidelines on justification and undue prominence. He said: “We take extreme care in making fair decisions about how we make popular artists accessible to our audiences, especially when the timing is around the release of a new album/book/film. U2 are one of the world’s most popular bands who have a diverse fanbase and we are reflecting this in our content.”

From The Daily Telegraph

I can actually understand how this could get out of hand. U2 is a huge band, and it is newsworthy (or entertainment-newsworthy) when they release an album. Everyone working at the BBC probably wanted to do interviews, and everything just escalated from there.

However, I started thinking about how pissed I would be if PBS and my NPR radio stations started doing this sort of excessive promotion of one artist for weeks on end. I would be super-pissed. This kind of one-sided-ness is tedious at best, and showing a really disturbing lack of journalistic credibility at worst. If U2 can get the BBC in this much of a state, what does it say about how the BBC covers politics, war and the economy? First they came for U2, then they came for my neighbor, then they came for me!

Bono is shown performing at the BRIT Awards on 2/18/09. Credit: WENN