The so-called liberal media outlets around the world have traditionally thrived on a common modus operandi, viz. aligning with the Communists and then pursuing a sinister agenda vociferously. However, there is an ongoing trend associated with the rise of Conservative governments across the world leading towards the rejection of outdated socialist policies and parties, which has also triggered the downfall of the liberal media outlets across the world.
While CNN has been unable to sustain itself in face of Donald Trump’s rise in the United States, NDTV has met a similar fate in India after the Modi government stormed to power in the year 2014. Now, the latest casualty among the so-called liberal media outlets seems to be the State-owned British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the United Kingdom.
The Conservative government recently won with a humongous majority during the UK General Elections held last year. The Conservative Party had already alleged discrimination against the Conservatives on the part of BBC. Now, it has come to light that Tony Hall, BBC Director-General is all set to step down from the top post this summer after seven years in the role. There has been an ongoing controversy over the BBC’s funding model between the ruling Conservative Party and the outgoing BBC Director-General, and his exit now seems certain.
It is relevant to mention in this context that the CNN in the United States has also been battling for survival and relevance in the face of Donald Trump’s meteoric rise in the country. The United States President Trump has time and again condemned CNN for spreading fake news. The CNN has witnessed a steep decline in viewership contemporaneously with Donald Trump’s verbal attacks on the outlet.
CNN’s viewership dropped to an abysmal low of 5 lakh 41 thousand last year, which is not even half of Focus News. As people of the United States have tilted towards the Conservative ideology, the so-called liberal media outlet has witnessed a drastic decline in TRP ratings.
In India’s context, the NDTV has witnessed a terrible downfall ever since the Modi government came into power. NDTV, which once used to lead the Indian media outlets, today fails to even find a place among the top five Hindi news channels.
Such has been the declining popularity and desperation of the NDTV that NDTV anchor and senior journalist, Ravish Kumar recently blamed Prime Minister Modi for the falling Television Rating Points (TRP) of his Prime Time show. Such has been the dejection and disillusionment of the NDTV journalist that he even went on to say, “What is this if not dictatorship? People can’t even watch my show in their homes. They’re isolated by their own family.”
Now, the BBC is the latest casualty among the liberal media outlets. Although BBC is a State-owned media outlet, its funding model has been a matter of controversy in the recent past. Last year, the UK government had released 3.7 billion Euros for the BBC. Despite funding by the UK government, BBC sought subscription fee from its viewers, including from country’s senior citizens. This has given rise to suspicions with British citizens asking where the BBC spent the funds released by the government.
BBC has taken up this disastrous funding model at a time when it is losing the youth viewer base. The average age of BBC viewers is 60 years. BBC is being increasingly boycotted over its blatant bias, especially by those under the age of 30 years. BBC’s imminent downfall, therefore, further corroborates how countries across the world are boycotting and rejecting agenda-run media outlets.
