Do you know how to spell Pravda?
BBC World News America used to be the best television news program on in the US.
Every night, from 7pm to 8pm we were able to watch a really good news program broadcast (or rather cablecast) on BBC America, The BBC’s attempt to break into the US market.
Now, at first, BBCA , as it’s called, used to broadcast all BBC shows, which was great. That, after all, is why someone would go to BBCA, as opposed to, say, TruTV.
Then, The BBC hired an American, Herb Scannell, formerly from Nickelodeon, to run the network.
This was a big mistake.
One should not hire an American from Nickelodeon to run a BBC product.
The first signs were telling.
Suddenly, old Star Trek reruns started to appear on BBCA every night after the news.
Why?
Why would anyone who was watching BBC America possibly want to see Star Trek reruns? And, God knows, there are lots of other channels that run old Star Trek reruns.
Then, Top Gear, the Jeremy Clarkson car show started showing up more and more. And more. And more.
And more
And more.
Then, the presenters on BBC World News America announced that their show was moving to PBS. Weird.
Then, on Monday, the change took place. BBC World News America had not, in fact, moved to PBS – at least not in New York. It has simply disappeared. A bit of research also showed that where it was appearing, it had been cut to a half hour.
How very un-BBC.
And what took the place of BBC World News America?
Top Gear.
On Monday, BBC America ran no fewer than eight Top Gear re-runs, back to back.
(Do they really pay someone to come up with these kinds of ‘programming’ ideas?)
Now, BBC World News America has a Facebook page. So I went there. They have a ‘wall’ where it says ‘Share your ideas’
So I shared mine. I asked why they had killed the best news program in America.
They took it down.
I asked where in NY I could see World News America.
They took it down.
I asked if they were planning on replacing their Morning News with Top Gear.
They took it down.
In fact, I posted 18 times.
They took all of them down – often withing minutes.
At least I am keeping someone at BBCA employed.
So now Mr. Scannell has added insult to injury.
Censorship.
Believe me – this is VERY un-BBC.
Very.