Friday Fictioneers is hosted by the wonderful Rochelle, the undisputed master of what I call Sound Bite Fiction.
She sets the weekly challenge, the standard, and the prompt photo.
The idea, as always, is to write a story of around 100 words based on the picture below, which this week is supplied by the lady herself.
Click here to hear the author read his words:
The Seer
Long ago the Seer was famous across the Earth.
He was knowledgeable and informative.
He spoke the truth.
He provided a Service to the World.
He was trusted for his integrity.
In his homeland of BeeBee the people contributed willingly to feed him.
Times have changed.
His reputation was compromised by a paedophile scandal, and he lied.
Now he spouts establishment propaganda to control the unruly masses to the north.
These people are still compelled to fund his lies.
The lies that threaten their freedom.
They see the BeeBee Seer as the mouthpiece of their oppressors.
And they despise him.
Yes they do need to head back to better days. But then perhaps the whole world needs to reform itself. Now look you have got me thinking, and that is worrying.🙂
Laughing.
Sometimes thinking can be dangerous, Michael!
So many like this now, unfortunately. Good story.
Ronda
And sadly not fiction, Ronda.
Love the play on words – or should it be letters? – either way, a strong indictment of what should be the voice of the people, but is actually a Biased Bull***t Club..
Thanks, Liz, glad you enjoyed.
I have various other interpretations of the letters, but this is still a family blog!
Yes, once you become a public figure you lose your life. Most people love you then hate you – why does he care?
Sorry, James, not sure I get your meaning here
I think I have been sidetracked here thinking about the personalities, rather then the organisation as a whole.
I like this. Talk about a fall from grace. It sounds like the ABC here in Australia, minus the exposed kiddie fiddler.
Thanks, Tannille, sorry to hear it’s the same all over.
Pun of the week, CE! I’m not sure the BeeBee Seer is any more biased against independence than most of us Southrons. But what do you care anyway? You live in the south of France!
I care deeply, Penny, and always have.
More to the point, why are you against another country running its own affairs instead of having the wishes of its neighbours foisted upon it?
Scotland never votes Tory, but that is who governs us, we voted 62-38 to stay in the EU, but you, for some obscure reason, are biased against us.
I fail to understand this.
And I live here for health reasons.
Now – freedom – is the most misunderstood word in the never ending debate. I think what people need to understand that the key word is “control”. Never trust any of them.
Just a tuppence worth – I do not do politics.
So you don’t care that the NHS is being sold to private US companies?
Are we going down a rabbit hole here. Who mentioned the NHS? My reading of your story was blinded by the various scandals and no more.
Take care and all the best.
We do seem to be increasingly at cross-purposes, James. My NHS comment was a response to your ‘I do not do politics’.
Wherever humans be there be a mess. What else is new?
I didn’t claim it was new, just poisonous.
“What else is new” is a figure of speech not criticism. Humans are messy wherever they go.
Funnily enough, I’ve just completed an online survey sent me by the BBC which asked me all sorts of questions about how I feel it compares with the other services and what I thought of its 10 TV channels and 63 or so radio stations! Suffice to say, I said it should become a subscription service rather than forcing a licence on us. I miss Canal+!
Good man, make them support themselves or die!
I have to admit to ignorance on this one. I did figure out you were talking about the BBC, but I know nothing of a terrible scandal. I suspect it was a multi-layered one, CE, because that’s your style, and it leaves the reader to his own imagination as to whatever happened –if anything happened.
Oh lots happened, Linda, there was a paedophile ring operating among the ‘talent’ and others.
Ugh. There is nothing more evil than that.
And just like that a grand institution crumbles through its subservience to its political masters. Enjoyed the “settle-back-in-your-chair” folktale quality of your reading and the writing itself, C.E.
Thank you, Dora, glad you enjoyed it
Ha ha – well you’ve opened a can of worms with this one, CE. (Personally I love the Beeb and take no notice of the negative propaganda levelled against the organisation.) 🙂
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
I guess there’s no accounting for taste, Susan.
Interesting that you prefer the BBC’s propaganda to that levelled against it.
As much as I like the writing, I can’t say I like the content of this one really. As an employee of the BeeBeeSeer in the north (though not in the news side of things), the myth that the BeeBee is inherently biased or a mouthpiece on one side or the other has been rumbling on for some time, and is frankly, nonsense. Far worse are the privately-owned tabloids with naked and biased agendas. And as a supporter for independence, I keep trying to tell people (as Trump and his followers found out over the pond) – the best way to achieve your goals is to work with the media, not moan and rail against them. Tough times for the BBC really, and we will only realise what we have lost when it is gone. And bear this in mind, the licence fee is a tax for public service broadcasting, not just the BBC TV, it covers radio, online, education, ITV, Channel 4, internet infrastructure, broadcasting infrastructure. Through the BBC it funds countless independent production companies, as well as supporting the Arts – theatre, orchestra, music and on and on. It is one of the lowest costs of public service broadcasting in Europe. If it goes, the government will replace it with something else, either an income or household tax – that monster will still need fed. I realise I’ve rambled on a bit there, but you did get me started!! 🙂
Thank you, Iain, for your impassioned defence of your employer.
I have little time for ‘one side or the other’, and my point is that the BBC has a strong anti-Independence bias, as admitted after the 2014 referendum, and as demonstrated by their coverage, or lack thereof, throughout that time.
I too mourn the loss of a once fine broadcaster, but now the sooner it is gone the better.
I notice that you don’t mention the scandal, and perhaps I shouldn’t have, but it demonstrated the depth of corruption in the organisation.
Your other points are noted.
Perhaps the animosity towards the licence fee would be less if it was made clear how the money was spent?
Again, thank you for your views.
I’m not going to get drawn into an online argument, but would like to say I disagree that it has a strong anti-independence bias, and has never admitted this. The scandal you mention was obviously horrific, and I’m glad to say before my time, but I don’t see link between that and a ‘depth of corruption in the organisation’. I completely agree where the BBC fails miserably is making it clear how and where the licence fee is spent and what good value it represents.
We are certainly not arguing here, Iain, simply agreeing to disagree.
To close, I recall a BBC person – I don’t remember who – saying they had no requirement to be impartial during IndyRef as it was not a General Election.
And involvement in a scandal of that magnitude of depravity is, I think, a significant link.
Thanks again for your feedback.
Dear CE,
Politics, politics…vanity, vanity…all is vanity. Or should I say “Water water all around and not a drop to drink”?
Shalom,
Rochelle
Indeed, m’lady, when the water is poisoned we have to take care
I like this a lot. Nicely done.
Thank you, sir
Loved your punny story, CE 😀 BeeBeeSeer does make some good movies though, I prefer them to Hollywood movies.
If that was all they did, JJ, I’d have no quarrel with them.
Funny how the left see the BBSeer as spouting right wing establishment propaganda, and the right see it as spouting woke left wing nonsense. Aside from that, the growing appetite of the monster and the cost of feeding it is becoming the biggest nonsense of all time. It serves no-one’s purpose except those who live in its echo chamber. Off with its head!
Thanks, Sandra, but I did not suggest that it is left- or right-wing, merely that it is an anti-Independence propaganda machine for the UK establishment.
Re ‘cost of feeding’, please see Iain’s comment above!
I loved “BeeBeeSeer”
Laughing.
Subtle I ain’t!