BBC’s embarrassing ethnocentrism

The BBC’s nightly, half-hour TV newscast here in the US (“and elsewhere around the world”) still has much to commend it. Tonight’s footage of Elizabeth Wilmshurst at the Chilcott Enquiry, lambasting the (il-)legal basis of the Blair government’s decision to back the invasion of Iraq was wonderful for us here in America to behold.
However… The Beeb does still bring a breathtakingly provincial and ethnocentric sensibility to its coverage of various “foreign” disasters. I just watched their footage of the after-effects of the massive floods in the Peruvian Andes. The reporter led off with the fairly minor trials and tribulations of the (let’s face it, mostly somewhat wealthy) western tourists in the region… and only some minutes into the report did he note that “local people” (i.e., the people formerly known as “natives”) “have also been affected.”
Who knew?
Who knew that Peruvian citizens, who have lost homes, businesses, livelihoods, and even lives due to the floods, should “also” be mentioned, as an afterthought, in a news bulletin that claims to be “international”???
This was an echo of the Beeb’s shockingly ethnocentric, or perhaps we should say whitefolks-centric, early coverage of the earthquake in Haiti two weeks ago.
Where on earth does the BBC find all these white-centric reporters and editors?
Time to retire or re-educate the lot of them, I think.

5 thoughts on “BBC’s embarrassing ethnocentrism”

  1. Yes, it does remind me of the type of news presentation about the latest plane crash/earthquake/volcanic eruption in which, we were comfortingly told, no Britons were among the casualties…..
    I missed most of the one hour newscast in the evening but had noted during the day how BBC America hadn’t been reporting the Chilcott Enquiry. Perhaps it was related to this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfl6Lu3xQW0
    S

  2. Reminds me that many local pbs stations around the country, including Ch’ville’s local WHTJ, are now carrying international english-language programming via something called Mhz Wordview.
    http://www.mhznetworks.org/mhzworldview
    Includes daily feeds from Al Jazeera, Beijing TV, Deutsche Welle (Germany), euroNews, FCI, France 24, IBA (Israel), MAC TV, NHK World TV (Japan), NTA, RT and SABC (South Africa) News International….
    Here in Charlottesville, you can view MhZ Worldview over the airwaves in at digital Channel 41.3.
    For those with the Comcast Cable, you’ll find the programming at Channel 266. (In Richmond, VA area, I gather it’s at Ch. 201)
    DirecTV satellite apparently also now carries Mhz Worldview.

  3. PS: I don’t work for WHTJ or Worldview — I just watch it, or have it on in background. Funny thing, a programming person at the station mentioned that she’s often asked, “Who would watch that stuff?”
    May word get around.

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