The "No News Day"...!

Did you ever get the feeling that nothing good was coming out of the news channels? Seems like the folks at BBC have had this happen more than once, so it does seem to be possible.

The BBC Once Reported That There Was No News

The BBC is famous for its news. However, it is also famous for not reporting the news. On April 18, 1930, the BBC did not report any news because it had no news. At 8:45 PM that day, a broadcaster went on the air and said, “Good evening, Today is Good Friday. There is no news.” Then the BBC went on to play piano music for the next 15 minutes.

There is always news, so it is surprising that the BBC said there was none. This was because the BBC had a monopoly on news reporting in Britain at the time. This meant that it also had a monopoly on what it considered newsworthy.

The BBC only reported news it felt would improve the morality of the British. And it was willing to forgo the news instead of reporting on things it considered distasteful. However, some have claimed that the action was actually an attempt by the BBC to prove it was independent of the British government.

At the time, the British government was trying to dispel a scandal that had been covered in the newspapers the previous day. The newspapers did not print on April 18 because it was Good Friday, so the government probably switched to the using the BBC to inform citizens of their position. However, the BBC could have decided to not report the news at all rather than report news to support the government.

I don't think our stations would get away with that in this day and age. Anyway, we always have the Internet, right?

Coffee out on the patio, I think.