The situations are not entirely compatible.
The Beeb casts a giant dark shadow over the UK. And the Conservatives are going after the loathsome mandatory license fees. Imagine being charged to fund PBS’s documentaries about Islam just because you bought a TV. Or a computer monitor.
Claims were made on Sunday that No 10 may be preparing a new onslaught on the BBC with a threat to scrap the television licence fee and turn it into a subscription service.
Welcome BBC bolshies to the 21st century.
The government is already consulting on proposals to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee, and ministers have suggested it could be abolished altogether when the BBC’s charter comes up for renewal in 2027.
That’s a popular approach. Everyone outside the arts world hates the license fee. And conservatives in the US ought to adopt the model of decriminalizing and selective prosecutorial discretion for things lefties want to throw the book at power for.
The warning comes after the BBC chairman, Sir David Clementi, last week mounted a strong defence of the licence fee system. He warned that putting the broadcaster behind a paywall would undermine its ability to “bring the country together”.
Bring the country together? (LAUGH sign flashes.)
Call it Beebexit.
Meanwhile in the US, PBS is a ridiculously abusive, economically, model, that keeps using Big Bird as a human shield even though it has underpaid Sesame Street which has all but absconded to PBS. Meanwhile its boss is getting a seven figure salary.
The whole “we air kids programming” argument is outdated anyway in an era when most parents are relying on YouTube and apps.
There’s never been a better time to axe PBS.
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