BBC Propaganda Dept - What's the Harm?

BBC 3 has made some pretty awful programmes about cannabis in recent times but the first part of the two part series “Cannabis, what’s the harm?” was unexpectedly fair and objective – not perfect, that would be too much to hope for, but it was pretty good. Last weeks blog carried a review of part 1 and can be seen here

Part 2 of this mini series was very different however and frankly failed utterly to properly represent the situation it described, instead served up a diet of pure propaganda. First of all, let’s be clear what is meant by propaganda and Word IQ gives this explaination:

Propaganda is a specific type of message presentation aimed at serving an agenda. Even if the message conveys true information, it may be partisan and fail to paint a complete and balanced picture. The primary use of the term is in political contexts, and generally refers to efforts sponsored by governments and political parties.

The goal of propaganda is to garner either support or disapproval of a certain position, rather than to simply present the position. The primary target of propaganda is people’s opinions rather than their knowledge. Therefore, the information conveyed is often presented in an emotionally loaded way and with other means of affecting the opinions of people.

That was what “Cannabis, what’s the harm?” did and that is why it was propaganda. What follows is an explanation of how the programme went about misrepresenting the situation in support of the government’s agenda.

...FULL REVIEW HERE...

SECOND OPINION?

Well I have to say, I was very disappointed in the second part of Cannabis: What’s the Harm? Presented by ex-eastender James Alexandrou. I had to wait until today to write this post, mainly because I was angry last night and would not have written as rationally as I am now.

I had, pardon the pun, ‘high hopes’ after the first episode last Thursday, where, bar Alexandrou’s negative commentary cannabis was actually shown in rather a positive light. Cannabis seemed to be getting a fair portrayal, and I was happy for it.

However last night it appeared that the BBC3 felt like it had risen too far above its own values surrounding cannabis and had to ‘set it right’ so to speak. What followed was an hour of negative viewpoints on cannabis, completely missing the point that the reason they all existed in the first place was because of prohibition.

...MORE HERE...