Some of you have asked how exactly the BBC enforces its mandatory license fee so that it can broadcast far-left propaganda to the British people. Here’s the official website that explains:
Using television receiving equipment to receive or record broadcast television programmes without the correct licence is a criminal offence. You could therefore face prosecution and a hefty fine of up to $1,000 ($1600). You may be asking yourself ‘how will they know if I’m using a TV without a licence?’ The answer is through a number of different methods. At the heart of our operation is the TV Licensing database. It has details of over 26 million UK addresses. Our officers have access to this computer system and a fleet of detector vans and hand-held detectors to track down and prosecute people who use a television without a licence. To find out how effective our methods are click here. Each year it becomes easier to find and prosecute people breaking the law in this way.
That’s what the BBC means by “publicly funded.” You pay up or they fine you. And they can spy on anyone with a television, backed up by the law and the force of government. No wonder that George Orwell used his experience at the BBC to model the Ministry of Truth in “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” On a related question, the BBC World Service is paid for directly out of government funds, i.e. general taxation. The BBC has, of course, produced much excellent television and radio over the decades. But it isn’t clear that that excellence couldn’t have been produced without this kind of 1940s socialist-style organization. And now that the Beeb has been hijacked by left-wing propagandists, the damage is getting greater.
THE FRENCH BEGIN TO WORRY: From my reader who monitors the French media:
This afternoon’s-signed editorial on French-government-owned Radio France International shockingly compared public attitudes in France today to those of the Vichy regime.-(www.rfi.fr – streaming video editorial today at 12:10-p.m. Eastern time-from Alain Genestare; archived recording should be posted soon). The Coalition forces in Iraq, said the editorial, are frequently referred to in France today as the “Anglo-American forces,” an expression apparently not widely-heard-since the-days of the collaborationist-Vichy-government over a half century ago.-As some of your readers may already know, comparing anyone or anything to the Vichy regime is, in the language of contemporary French politics,-like dropping a nuclear bomb.-Vichy is not something the French have really come to terms with, even today.-(Remember the éclat several years ago when Mitterrand’s Vichy ties came to light?)- Well, somebody in the French government must be getting worried.-It’s about time.-The radio editorial then went on to cite the Le Monde poll you posted about several days ago, and expressed shock that some one third of-the French should be hoping for-a Saddamite victory, a victory by a “criminal against humanity.”
Vichy, huh? Not far off, I’d say. But some over there are beginning to see sense.
BAGHDAD BROADCASTING CORPORATION: Suggesting more civilian casualties than the Iraqis.
The Dish 