Hard Pressed
Big Brother is causing a big bother for the readers of The Daily Mail. The land of housewives and Land Rover owners that is Middle England, is up in arms. Again. Channel Four, bastion of ‘yoof’ culture is mounting an all out assault on their sensibilities in a move that must be making Mary Whitehouse revolve in her grave. A sixth series of Big Brother, and this year the show’s producers have promised more of everything that Middle England hates.
Each year the Daily Wail moans about how uninspiring a format of television Big Brother is; how the whole project is tawdry and demeaning to the human race; and how the contestants are a cancer on British society. There’s a certain irony of course, in that they themselves never change the record. Year after year they produce the same interminable drivel about the show, only to be regurgitated by an ill-informed readership.
Surely these people have better things to do? Like worrying about falling house prices for example. There is, however, something rather amusing about imagining outraged rightwing journo-hack, Matt Born, gasping in disbelief that: “within hours of the show’s launch on Friday, contestant Lesley Sanderson had flashed her breasts.” What’s more worrying is The Mail (and presumably its imbecilic readership) actually believe reality television is the cause of so many of the country’s woes.
If we are to believe the gospel according to The Mail, then gangs of hoodie-wearing thugs, teenage pregnancies and truancy are the result of too much Big Brother, I’m a Celebrity… and The Farm. Such a proposition is about as likely as the readership of the paper forming its own opinion on any topical issue, or making any comment that does not refer back to the ‘Golden Age’ of hanging and oppression of minority interests in society.
The biggest hypocrisy of all is that a paper which believes people should be allowed to get on with their lives, free from excessive interference or external constraints, should so ardently advocate a restriction of the liberties of the young in our society. Not to suggest that what The Mail produces is of any merit. More surprising is that so many people are actually willing to purchase page after page of mindless rant.
The fact they do means one cannot legitimately suggest The Mail cease their bombastic utterings. Affording people the right to express themselves is something The Mail should more readily appreciate. After all, it is itself an absurd spectre of the state of British media.
2nd Jun 2005