The British Are Coming...with Microphones?

Journal

The BBC thinks San Diego is a prime target for its 24-hour news channel. We seem to be reacting with trademark apathy.

TWELVE. THAT’S HOW many attempts British Broadcasting Corporation news presenter Jeremy Paxman once made at getting a politician to answer a question on live television. It was May 13, 1997. England’s Home Secretary Michael Howard was in the hot seat. Paxman, a longfaced news hound who exemplifies the in-your-face nature of BBC reportage, asked Howard each time: “Did you threaten to overrule him [Derek Lewis, head of England’s Prison Service]?” A dozen times, an equivocating Howard refused to offer a yes or no answer. Paxman’s tenacity was a magnifying glass on the evasive nature of political-speak, a language spoken by public officials the bloody world ’round.

Why dredge up this 10-year-old interview? Because the BBC is making a concerted effort to break into the United States market with its 24-hour news channel——and San Diego is an early target. Currently, BBC World News is seen each week by 76 million viewers. It’s watched in 200 countries, accessing 272 million households and nearly 1.5 million hotel rooms. The channel’s content is also shown on 50 cruise lines, 37 airlines and dozens of mobile phone networks.

The BBC reach in the U.S., however, is minuscule. Locally, KPBS-TV runs a half-hour world news roundup weekdays at 6 p.m. KPBS Radio offers an hour, also starting at 6. And Cox Cable does offer the BBC, but only in its nosebleed digital lineup (channel 345).

A BBC-commissioned survey by Luntz Maslansky Strategic Research found U.S. viewers are dissatisfied with the “sensationalist, superficial and narrow-minded” offerings from America-centric CNN, Fox News and MSNBC cable news channels. (Have you watched CNN lately? The female anchors are supermodels. All of the news readers engage in giddy, between-story “happy talk,” as if they’re reporting on the state fair. “And that’s the latest death toll from Iraq. Robin, over to you, and by the way, that’s a smashing red dress.”)

The Luntz poll named San Diego——along with Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio——as one of the top three hot spots for marketplace entrance. During the summer, a guerrilla marketing campaign was launched. Giant map pieces——representing countries under-reported on by U.S. networks, according to the BBC’s poll——were placed in parks, at beaches and outside libraries universities and coffee shops. The campaign tagline: SEE THE WORLD YOU’VE BEEN MISSING. The promotional map pieces also included a Web address (demandbbc.com), where you could go to register your desire to have BBC offered in your hometown.

Map pieces were to have been placed in Old Town, La Jolla and Little Italy. I never saw any in public spots (and I walk the streets of Little Italy daily).

A Cox Communications spokesperson says the cable company has seen a BBC sales presentation, but there hasn’t been a groundswell for adding a new channel. “We’re always looking at our channel lineup and seeking feedback——we monitor customer requests,” says Cox media relations manager Ceanne Guerra. “We haven’t gotten feedback about the BBC——nothing like when people asked us to add the Fox news channel.”

I WAS INTRIGUED, NONETHELESS. What can we learn from being courted by the BBC——whether the locals want more world news or not? Why did we get tabbed along with glitzy L.A. and heartlandic Columbus?

First, speaking generally about the United States, pollster Frank Luntz says, “Americans increasingly recognize the importance of international news, and they perceive a gap between what they are getting and what they need.”

And here in San Diego: “The results were unexpected, but we found that a large percentage of San Diegans watch the news and want more international news,” says Washington, D.C.-based BBC executive producer Rome Hartman.

Why? Hartman points to San Diego’s large collegiate and academic populations. Indeed, we annually make it into top 10 lists for most-educated U.S. populace.

We’re also a military stronghold. Hartman says military personnel who have been stationed around the world look for news from the places they’ve seen firsthand. Other likely factors include San Diego being home to a somewhat older population, being a port city and being located on an international border.

San Diego may very well be chock full of the “opinion elite”——a term coined by Luntz. It refers to folks who are college educated, make at least $65,000 annually, voted in the 2006 national elections and watch at least an hour of news per day. But does that group outnumber the Pacific Beach knuckleheads who’d rather play beer-bottle toss with the police? Despite the occasional holiday beach riot, we’re at heart a laidback bunch. We can’t even be bothered to stand and cheer during a Padres game until closer Trevor Hoffman has two outs and two strikes.

And——holy frijoles!——30-second sound bites are routinely part of even longer stories on BBC news programs. Here in the United States, and especially down San Diego way, we’re used to hearing three or four news pieces in 30 seconds. Even when it comes to putting on our shoes, we’d rather slip on flipflops than spend the extra time it takes to lace up a pair of sneakers. Surely, the BBC must know about our collective attention deficit disorder.

THE BBC’S HARTMAN, who worked for decades at CBS News, knows BBC news had a U.S. reputation for being a monotonous, fact-based version of Masterpiece Theatre. “Americans are accustomed to fast-paced graphics——ZAP! and Pow!——but we think some people are getting tired of it,” says Hartman.

Also, the BBC offers more of a combative media/political dynamic than U.S. outlets, says BBC Washington correspondent Matt Frei. “That really needs to be added to the U.S. scene. Politicians in England know they have to put up with this, and that breeds more accountability.”

Veteran newsman Neil Morgan, long of The San Diego Union-Tribune newspapers and now a voice of reason for online news outlet VoiceofSanDiego.org, avidly watches the BBC news broadcast on KPBS-TV. He believes there is a place in San Diego for the BBC.

“On different levels, I see the same [civic] confusion I saw 40 years ago here,” says Morgan. “But we are definitely a more worldly city than we used to be, with a more culturally developed mind.”

KPBS news manager Michael Marcotte echoes Hartman’s Luntz poll–based assertion that there is a growing revulsion toward corporate U.S. media. “And I think people are intrigued to look at coverage of the United States that doesn’t come with the filters we are used to,” he says. “It can be very revealing.”

Marcotte used BBC World News as a lead-in to local news talk show Full Focus——until low ratings for Full Focus caused KPBS to pull the plug. Marcotte says Full Focus bombed while sandwiched between two popular shows——BBC World News and The Newshour with Jim Lehrer. (Hey, and where’s our interest in in-depth local news? Along with Full Focus, KOGO Radio just switched its morning format away from San Diego news.)

“People will eventually gravitate toward superior coverage,” says Marcotte, referring to the BBC offerings. “A lot of the correspondents have accents——but once you get past that, you see that it’s a quality news operation. They have knowledgeable correspondents, and they have that tougher interview style.

“If anything, having that available in a city is a good thing for all journalists to see. It sets the bar at a higher level.”

Hear, hear. Indeed, why can’t we do something to set the media bar higher? Yes, why can’t we set the bar higher? I said, can we set the bar higher? Really, why not strive to make the bar higher for the media? Please, don’t make me ask the question eight more times . . .

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