The real cancel culture: BBC cuts Autumn Watch
The media is full of celebrities and others claiming they have been ‘cancelled’ often because they have asserted their right to make bigoted and reactionary statements. They are not of course actually cancelled or we wouldn’t know about it.
By contrast there is the real cancel culture where views outside of the mainstream, dissenting perhaps from the values of a market capitalist society struggle to find an outlet. Its not a new thing. The historian E P Thompson was complaining about it 60 years ago.
In that framework the BBC has announced that Autumn Watch one of three seasonal programmes that look at changes in wildlife and the environment has been cancelled. More resources will be put into Spring Watch and Winter Watch. This is good news the cancellation isn’t.
The cause of course is Tory spending cuts to the BBC. Public Service broadcasting doesn’t fit too well with the market society. While the Watch programmes do of course focus on wildlife and the natural environment the impact of climate change while not the headline can’t be avoided and it isn’t.
Hopefully the decision can be reversed. There is a petition
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