As I promised in my last blog, I will discuss the plausibility of socializing media in America, and the success of Britain’s socialized media, the BBC. I will first begin by stating my belief that even if it were beneficial, I do not believe that our country would ever even consider socializing our media. There are several reasons why I do not believe that this will occur. First of all, our constitution stresses the importance of freedom of press. This sentiment, which is one of our highest ideals, would prevent our government from ever even considering touching our media. The second reason why I believe this could never occur, at least in the near future, is because socialism in general is a predominately unpopular system in America. Just 39% of Americans have a positive view of socialism, compared to 61% who view capitalism positively. Unless public opinion shifts vastly, Americans will never allow their media to be heavily influenced by the government in the near future.
If America were to adopt some form of socialized media, it could resemble the BBC. Although American media is certainly frighteningly biased, the BBC has drawn ample criticism of its own. In Great Britain, many conservatives are livid about the BBC’s coverage, believing that there is ample bias against their party in favor of the Labour party. One instance of bias that they point to is the BBC’s description of reduced spending as “cuts” rather than “savings,” which is how the Conservative party would prefer it to be thought of. They also accuse the BBC of covering just one side of changes to the welfare program, only showing the difficulty that the poor will face if welfare changes are enacted. David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative party and the Prime Minister of Great Britain, has even outright accused the BBC for behaving “badly” and “stupidly” in its coverage of the Eastleigh by-election.
The BBC has been accused of bias ranging from anti-Muslim, to anti-Catholic, to Indophobic, to anti-Sikh, and most commonly, as pro-liberal. Clearly, although the profit motive has been removed from this organization, it is still tainted by a considerable degree of bias. Unfortunately, even removing the profit motive may not cleanse media in America.
In this entire article the part that surprised me the most was that 39% of Americans have a positive view of socialism. This number seems way higher than I would have expected it to be, considering how pro-freedome and pro-capitalism we are as a nation. Personally, I like the BBC. I find their coverage of international issues is much better than American news station, but bias is bound to be built into any government run system. Like you said, I doubt that American’s will ever support this kind of government interaction in new.