Now that Nigel Farage is off our screens for the first time in years, let’s reflect on what the hell that was all about.
He said little that was both original and interesting, yet the BBC gave him a huge platform, building his political career, changing our politics. Why?
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He said little that was both original and interesting, yet the BBC gave him a huge platform, building his political career, changing our politics. Why?
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I don’t believe the BBC deliberately sought to normalise the far right in the UK. I think it was about noise. Farage triggers a massive reaction, and this, in an attention economy, is what counts.
Never mind interesting, never mind original, never mind considered. Noise is all.
Never mind interesting, never mind original, never mind considered. Noise is all.
Nor was this anything to do with balance. The coverage he received was massively disproportionate to his political following. But it did build that following, becoming, to an extent, self-fulfilling.
More than the Telegraph or the Mail, more perhaps than all the newspapers, the BBC built the demagogic right, by massively platforming not just Farage but a host of other noisy buffoons (Johnson, Rees-Mogg, Francois) while sidelining less colourful, more thoughtful people.
It wasn’t a plan. It was the outcome of a ratings strategy: allowing the clowns to take over the circus. BBC news and current affairs became a massive reality show (Hate Island?), promoting the most obnoxious people to drive up ratings.
Prioritising noise inevitably changes politics. Spectacle and sensation are the tools of the far right. The ratings war created an environment in which politics was bound to drift rightwards, and to keep drifting. I explain this here:
UK politics became collateral damage in the ratings war, and we will suffer from these decisions for years to come. The Pandemic Pause gives us a chance to reflect on many things. The BBC should take it.
