Controlling the media has always been a fixation with Fabian socialists. Using forcibly extracted citizen's money to fund state media (radio, television) to produce broadcasts celebrating the panoply of causes associated with statist secularism has been a focus of the Left for generations. If you cannot take control by revolution and force, the next best thing is to win hearts and minds. However, the Left has always been lazy and in too much of a hurry. Better to use the levers of state power to push state hegemony and socialist causes.
This leads to another socialist sacred cow. In the Leftist worldview, human society is divided along property lines. The propertied (capitalists) are oppressors and exploiters. The working classes and the poor are the oppressed wretched of the earth. One struggles to get any traction educating (propagandising) working class rubes because they don't have sufficient money to fund expensive propaganda outlets like television and radio and newspapers. Therefore, the strategy has been to exploit the monied classes through a progressive taxation system to fund socialist propaganda through the mass media, via public broadcasting.
Consequently, amongst the Fabian socialists, public broadcasting--funded by the taxpayer--has long been a sacred cow for Leftist causes, the promotion of statism and more government controls, and secularism.
All this, we are told by our erstwhile masters, is good for us. Such broadcasting is in the public interest. Non-state run media is the propaganda tool of the capitalists (according to the world-view of Fabian socialism); the "good guys" need state funding so mass media can combat the exploitative ideologies of the wealthy. Hence, by definition, state-run media is always in the public interest, unlike privately owned media, which always promotes the world-view of the oppressor and the exploiter.
This self-righteous simplistic prism through which the Left views the world may be far from reality. But it does generate hilarity amongst the cynical. Whenever you are confronted by an advocate pompously proclaiming the virtue and necessity of public broadcasting, behold a provocateur for Leftist ideology.
In New Zealand in recent days a brouhaha has broken out over the foreshadowed demise of a public affairs programme, Campbell Live. John Campbell's TV slot has been owned by a publicly listed company. The Fabians have been in high dudgeon. They have perceived a capitalist plot to silence one of the last Leftist voices able to speak "truth to power". They have muttered about dark plots between the ostensibly right wing government and the capitalist owners of Campbell Live. The fact that thousands upon thousands of New Zealanders were hitting the Change Channel button whenever Campbell came on is irrelevant. All those rubes don't know what is good for them. We (the enlightened Fabian elite) do know what's good for the people. The demise of Campbell from prime time is due to monied interests oppressing the poor and down-trodden even further into the mud--etc. etc.
A lobby group pushing for public broadcasting in New Zealand says the government is denying viewers the right to watch decent public service programming. The Coalition for Better Broadcasting said they want an alternative network to cater for more serious news and current affairs, in light of uncertainty about Campbell Live's future. And it is urging the government to lift funding to ensure that quality public service television remains on air.Same old tired arguments. Of course if there were a market for the kind of "decent public service programming" some bright spark capitalist would have exploited it long ago. But Myles Thomas and his cohort know best. They know what is good for us. They know what is in the true interests of the public.
Coalition chief executive and TV director Myles Thomas criticised Prime Minister John Key for his comments on Thursday questioning whether enough people would watch publicly funded broadcast TV. The answer was yes, he said. "Judging by the recent outcry (over Campbell Live) Kiwis do expect better from our television channels and from those who control them." He said New Zealand had one of the lowest government contributions to public broadcasting and a publicly funded TV network was desperately needed. The current line up of TV news and current affairs was "a pretty depressing situation" and viewers deserved better, he said. "It's only when something goes that we realise how perilous our TV landscape is."
The potential loss of Campbell Live showed the failure of the market to serve the public interest, he said. [Stuff]
The arrogance, the paternalism, and the holier-than-thou attitudes would be offensive were they not so risible. Dear Mr Thomas--thank you for looking after our interests, which magically, you are able to discern and service better than we ourselves. How wonderful to have such a kind uber-parent to guide us--and to tax us--so that we can watch and hear what is truly in our best interests.
Arrogant condescension and Fabian socialism are always conjoined twins.
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