Mindgames & BBC Breakfast TV

An old belief in the Soviet Union and east European countries was that if you wanted to know the truth about what was going on all you had to do was to believe the opposite of what the State media told you.

Although the BBC, in a typically middle class British manner, is less obvious hence far more underhand I find that the general principle still prevails. For when all is said and done either a piece of news reportage reflects the truth or it does not. Unfortunately for the likes of the BBC, the opportunity to tinker with facts is limited by what is actually going on in the real world and the people's received wisdom of same.

Of course, that doesn't stop it from trying to keep its masters in government and high places happy. Despite a snowball of increasing hysteria among its managers, matched only by another of despair among its staff (News Director, Helen Boaden, is quoted as saying she was aware that some staff felt "knackered and frustrated" because of their workload) the same old, mediocrities are daily trotted out to an increasingly jaded public.

Breakfast TV seems to be a good time to slip in a few subliminal messages into the communal subconscious. While folk are still half asleep, munching on toast and cornflakes, the verbal sleight of hand can have its maximum effect. Witness, for example, this morning's little foray into the land of BBC virtual reality.

With a burgeoning of CCTV spy cameras on every street corner, shop and motorway is Britain turning into a surveillance society? Now the answer to that should be obvious but that's precisely why the BBC is forced to treat the question. And treat it it does. Well, yes, but you see surveillance is really good for us because it cuts crime and terrorism, says the BBC, cashing in on a premium of fear, guilt and insecurity.

Although your data might be widely available to a score of agencies, don't worry, it's protected by the Data Protection Act. Besides which, the authorities aren't going to seek information on you unless you've done something bad.

Phew! You know, I was quite worried for a minute there. So that's all right, then, nothing to worry about. I can rest assured, knowing that my government is looking after my best interests. Big Brother is watching over me and Big Brother knows best.

And, hey, you know what? I'm comforted by a feeling that I believe in fairies at the bottom of my garden and Santa Claus too!

Notice how, in a manner Goebbels would have delighted in, the BBC uses moral guilt to hammer home the message: if you've done nothing wrong then you've nothing to worry about in a surveillance society. It's the criminals and terrorists that ought to be worried. Now you're not a criminal or a terrorist are you? Are you?

Am I?

Well, I don't really know. You've got me feeling Kafkaesquely guilty now. Maybe I am a criminal and a terrorist and don't know it? Or at least maybe potentially I might be? What about all those pathological hateful thoughts I have when stuck in a traffic jam for hours? And, you know, there's times I've felt almost sympathy for those terrorists. After all, it's a fucked up world and we're all guilty of a degree of terrorism, aren't we, by allowing our governments to go on mass killing sprees abroad?

It's just so difficult to know who's innocent and who's guilty. Nothing's simple anymore so perhaps we all deserve to be constantly surveilled by all these spy cameras? And if it's reducing crime and terrorism then it's gotta be good, innit? After all, Aunty BBC like Big Brother, knows best.

(Photo: Thanks to Stef Zucconi)