I whipped off an e-mail to the Beeb this morning. The moon wasn't blue, but that's about how rarely I do this. (I was miffed at more hypocritical nonsense from a Bush minion on 'Broadcasting House' about the role of the United Nations, but that's all I had to think about the threat of war today.)
I 'd begun in a displeased frame on mind. We Anglos in the land of the Coq and the Worm are fortunate to be able to listen to Radio 4 on long wave - except when cricket takes over, with scarcely a "by your leave", bang in the middle of something else! As happened again this morning. This particularly angers elderly or housebound Anglophile friends, seeking an alternative to the French airwaves but condemned for days to hour after hour of mind-numbing ball-by-blow verbiage. Worse is when it rains and still they won't take it off the air, in case the cloud lifts and the teams come out. This is the very essence of programming where nobody has anything to say, but they'll say it anyway, with increasingly dire sullies into wit. The only redeeming factor then is that the commentators have little choice but to listen to each other, which is more than they do during the matches.
Now, I know I'm being unjust. There's always the World Service, though a surfeit of news and jingles can soon pall. We're a minority audience in a minority. On the 'phone from distant Abidjan, my friend Abhik did warn me yesterday that part of his mind wasn't on the job, not with India playing Pakistan in the World Cup for the first time since ... I can't remember when he said! ;-)
Protest works! Some years back, the BBC announced a halt to its long-wave broadcasts to Europe. The prospect caused such uproar that a host of expats summoned a Beeb big-wig to a public meeting here. Not only did Auntie listen, she changed her mind, and we got an indefinite stay of execution. So one can hardly expect them to shift the cricket to a different wavelength too, I suppose. The core home audience has FM, and while I don't understand where the money comes into the cricket coverage, I'm sure that's the bottom line.
Escape for some of us came with the Internet. Two years ago, I got a surprise visit at work from a fellow who joined the news agency I'm with at around the same time as me, but has long since moved on, became an excellent BBC correspondent reporting from a succession of front lines, and now does something important online.
In that friendly way journalists have, David almost immediately cut the gossip of the years to tell me just how appalling 'my' agency's coverage was of some events. "We just use you for tip-offs," he fibbed snidely. "You think we're bad?" I riposted. "Let me show you the latest factual mistakes on the BBC Africa pages! And you didn't get all those from us." We swapped e-mail addresses to pursue our battle of insults, but of course we've never bothered.
Stung by one of his more accurate criticisms, I'd remarked that "parts of BBC Online read as if it's being cobbled by kids out of college on a shoe-string budget". "Now there you're wrong," he responded. "It's one of our biggest investments. You'll see!"
And I have. BBC Online has so swiftly become an empire! With a reasonably fast internet connection, you could get lost in there for weeks on end. I see that commercially, they have even set up as a host ISP. It's a pity, perhaps, that you need RealPlayer as well as QuickTime to make the most of it, but I know of nothing else on the net to match the scale of this particular media enterprise. I can't begin to imagine the server space they must use: colossal!
There is a downside. My friend Tony is still stuck with the cricket because he doesn't have or want a permanent internet connection and 'phone bills are a very expensive way to pay for the Beeb. Another veteran of the printed word, rather than of the net, tells me that the library wing of the British Council here has become a mess almost beyond redemption. But not, it would seem, if you go online, Donald.
And that's the problem, isn't it? Discrimination in access to information. The new empire has much in common with the old one. Don't forget, Donald, what I told you yesterday. You are still far more intelligent than that computer! That's why you can't always persuade it to do what you want.
Even trans-Atlantic pals who are lost when it comes to talk of 'The Archers' need no longer be stuck, heaven help them. It can be mildly diverting during a long Sunday morning bath.
Who won the cricket?
4:45:56 PM link 
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