Licence fee evaders' bizarre logic

My local free newspaper, the News Post Leader, recently published a press release from Fishburn Hedges purporting to list some of the excuses given to the Capita salesman for not having a licence. Google provides very many instances of the same press release being used by newspapers throughout the country.

I don't intend to discuss the article itself. Rather, I'd like to point out that many news articles are not "news" in the accepted sense - ferreted out by dedicated reporters - but are merely, as in this case, press releases which are printed verbatim and uncritically. This is an insult to readers' intelligence. Further, in the case of TV licensing propaganda, it aids and abets the BBC in its campaign of misinformation, bluster and intimidation. So your humble scribe decided to put electronic pen to paper and sent the following e-mail. It will be interesting to see if the paper follows this up. It ought to.

I'd like to make a few observations on the item "Licence fee evaders' bizarre logic" with the dateline Thursday Dec 09 08:06:58 GMT 2010. It's disappointing when a newspaper uncritically publishes as "news" a handout from a PR firm instead of doing some basic journalism by asking a few awkward questions.

For example, the Ian Fannon mentioned in this release is quoted as saying "No matter how creative people get with their excuses, watching or recording live TV without a licence is against the law." Now if you enter those words into your favourite search engine you will find those self-same words attributed variously to Mark Whitehouse (described as "TV Licensing spokesman for East Anglia" and "TV Licensing spokesman for the West Midlands"), Tim Downs (described as "TV Licensing spokesman for the North of England")and Warren Carr (described as "The South West representative for TV Licensing"), amongst several others. Why should that be? Why should people in different parts of the country be saying exactly the same thing at exactly the same time? Obviously, they are being orchestrated - but by whom?

Well, with further recourse to your favourite search engine you'll find that these people are not whom they say they are. Searching for "Ian Fannon" shows he is employed by PR firm Fishburn Hedges. Similarly, Tim Downs works for the Brass PR firm in Leeds whilst Warren Carr is PR Director for PR company Quadrant.

In fact, every "TV Licensing" spokesperson that you check will be found to work for a PR firm. So, to return to the question, who is doing the orchestrating? Warren Carr's Website provides the answer. On the page titled "TV Licensing" you'll see the following:

Quadrant is part of a UK-wide PR team, co-ordinated centrally by Fishburn Hedges and through working closely with them we are able to implement a national plan to secure quality press and media coverage throughout our designated regions.

Fishburn Hedges? Employer of Ian Fannon? Who they?

You'll find the answer on the TV Licensing(TM) Website. There you'll see that Fishburn Hedges provide "Public relations and advertising services" under subcontract to Proximity London Ltd, who in turn are contracted to the BBC. What should really bake your noodle (if I may quote from "The Matrix") is the fact that TV Licensing(TM) as a company or an organisation DOES NOT EXIST. It's there on the same Webpage - "'TV Licensing' is a trade mark of the BBC and is used under licence by companies contracted by the BBC to administer the collection of the television licence fees and enforcement of the television licensing system". The BBC is the TV Licensing Authority, but this is NOT the same as "TV Licensing", which is a mere trademark like "Mr Blobby".

The law says that it is a criminal offence to watch or record live TV without benefit of a licence, and the BBC as the TV Licensing Authority must ensure that every viewer is properly licensed. The problem is, as you will readily see, that this offence is committed behind closed doors TO WHICH THE BBC HAS NO LEGAL ACCESS. To solve this problem the BBC employs the PR firms mentioned above, and others, via Fishburn Hedges to disseminate disinformation to the press in the form of releases like the one you have uncritically published. They perpetuate the myths of "TV Licensing" (which is nothing but a figment of the imagination of the BBC), "TV Licensing Officer" (who is nothing more than a door-to-door salesman employed by Capita Business Services to sell TV licences on commission, and who has no more authority than the Betterware salesman) and the "TV Detector Van" (which if it existed would be governed by RIPA, forbidden from cruising the streets monitoring houses indiscriminately and which has never provided the evidence for the prosecution in any court of law).

By publishing these press releases you are bolstering the whole campaign of bluster, misinformation and intimidation carried out by the BBC. I urge you to investigate this whole TV licensing system and educate your readers as to what is really going on. Surely that is the responsibility of a free press? You can find a more detailed analysis on "Watchkeeper's Log" at http://watchkeeperslog.blogspot.com and this e-mail will form the latest post.