<i>Good programmes on television</i>
Photo: well.blogs.nytimes
I agree with the tone of the letter of Sakhawat Samir Choudhury (29th November). Finding good programmes on television is, indeed, difficult Moreover, it is perfectly natural to fear that the content of many programmes - and the advertising! - is brainwashing not only the young, but all of us with bad standards and values. When I was growing up in the UK, there were just two BBC channels, neither with advertising, and the quality was so high that sometimes we did not know which to watch! The only 'brainwashing' we got was against ignorance concerning, for example, the needs of the disabled and the poor of the world, which were frequently the subjects of prime-time viewing - which had an enormous influence on a whole generation of us. The collapse of standards was, and is, a natural progression for those prepared (or forced) to abandon public service broadcasting and turn it into 'selling audiences to advertisers.' In every country, responsible parenting involves encouraging selective viewing but, in this dear country, it is almost impossible to discover what programmes are being shown on which channels and when. It would surely not be impossible, with some pump-priming capital, to set up an office with a computer and telephone so that there can be, on a website and in a weekly newspaper insert, a list of programmes across the whole spectrum of channels that most of us have. Then parents and guardians could sit down with their children and tell them which programmes on which channels they should watch.
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