Episode of Ashes to Ashes

I see the "Ministry of Propaganda", aka the BBC are at it again with their anti-masonic prejudice. Last week's episode of "Ashes to Ashes" showed the main character being initiated into Freemasonry. The episode portrayed Freemasonry as a form of institutionalised nepotism. Whilst this could be frivolously dismissed as 'fiction' the BBC has something of a track record of portraying Freemasonry in this way. A few years ago I wrote in to correct an article that had appeared on the BBC website. The rather arrogant response I received was the piece was correct. I responded by asking why, if it was accurate, were there women in the photo dressed in regalia ;-) I received a further response (not an apology) saying they had removed the photo from the website and from their library archive.

In a similar vein we saw the female character Alex Drake "sneak in" to observe the ceremony. What outrageous nonsense! Moreover the ceremony abruptly ended immediately after the obligation with "let's have a drink". This conveniently missed out the Ancient Charge where the newly-made mason is instructed he cannot use his membership for personal or professional gain.

Such sophistry might make for compelling fiction, but unfortunately it also fuels the paranoia about Freemasonry we have been trying to dispel for a number of years. This is all the more concerning when the BBC is publicly funded from our TV licence: we have no option to object by withholding our licence fee as we will be prosecuted.

Indeed when it comes to accusations of corruption it would appear that the BBC would not be candidate to cast the first stone. I hope everybody remembers this little episode of BBC history: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1646791,00.html.

The BBC claims to be "impartial". This episode of "Ashes to Ashes" was a clear example of prejudism and hypocrisy from a publicly funded organisation. Shame on you, BBC.