Time is Money

We live in a busy world. Businesses often run on the mantra ‘time is money’, for it seems, ‘if you snooze you lose’.

Aside from these clichés, you might expect that when you pay or contribute to something, you might expect something back. Maybe not if it’s a charity, but no matter how sad some of the programs may seem, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is no charity case.

I like the BBC, I like their news coverage, and find some of their programs enjoyable. They did adapt Sarah Water’s “Fingersmith” and “Tipping the Velvet” to please lesbians everywhere. Yet despite this, it seems the BBC are still far behind most of civilised society in their attitudes.

As many of you may be aware, last year Stonewall monitored 168 hours of peak time TV on BBC One and BBC Two. During that time lesbian and gay people and their lives were realistically and positively portrayed for just six minutes. To put this into perspective, gay people were contributing almost £190 million every year towards BBC programming. It seems money is not necessarily time. Especially if you’re a BBC boss.

I can’t be too hard on the BBC – they did air “Boys Don’t Cry”, a shocking film about a confused transgender teen who is raped and murdered, this month. Although the cynical side of me is saying that 11.35pm isn’t exactly prime time.

And even more frustrating, is their continued defence of both Chris Moyles and Jeremy Clarkson who have both recently been broadcast describing a ringtone and a car (respectively) as ‘gay’. Surely two personalities with such big heads should have a larger vocabularly? Or at least a little more sense? Or maybe not.

But the most frustrating bit of it all? They have removed Natasha Kaplinsky from Breakfast News. (Not that I’m up for Breakfast much anymore).