Did you know that last week it was revealed that her Majesty the Queen once wore flares – in the 1970s.  There was also the earth shattering news that the Mary Rose was sunk by a French cannon in 1545 – during a battle with the French Navy.  However, the straw that finally broke the camel’s back for me was the shocking news that the Business secretary, Peter Mandelson , Baron Foy in the county of Herefordshire and Hartlepool in the county of Durham, is in fact, a practised and "flamboyant" dancer.  I nearly crashed my car when I heard.  They’ll be saying he’s gay next. 

In a week when War escalated in the Democratic Republic of Congo to such an extent that the number of those displaced reached an apocalyptic one million, wildfires in California destroyed huge swathes of the state endangering life and ruining homes, the USA and Iraq sign a pact setting a timetable for troop withdrawal and conditions which would make it impossible for the US to attack any of Iraq’s neighbours and a child suffering horrific abuse was failed by those paid to protect him in Haringey.  Quite a week I would say.  So, which of these news stories grabbed the headlines?  While the last story did dominate, it secured only a few more column inches than the frankly insignificant ‘news’ that John Sergeant had walked out on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.  For the uninitiated, ‘Strictly’, as its devotees call it, is a remake of a 1970s Ballroom dancing show except  now they cram it with desperate celebrities who fill our screens every single night of the week with their well practiced gyrations which the assembled ‘judges’ ridicule to the point of bullying, satisfying the baying crowds’ bloodlust for more.  It’s very similar to that singing program with the bloke who pulls his trousers up so high you can see his penis. 

Not that I’m knocking the BBC, you understand.  I do believe that a mere £139.50 is a very small price to pay for a generally high quality output across both TV and Radio.  However, putting John Sergeant as the main news story, when he should only ever be there reporting it, does nothing to refute the long asserted accusation that the BBC dumbs down its news content.  Add to that the fact that BBC Breakfast regularly wastes the precious few minutes I have in the morning with its ‘Strictly’ updates when all I want to know is a: has the world gone into financial meltdown, and b: is it going to rain.  I wonder how many massacred Iraqis it takes to shift ‘Strictly’ from top of the news schedule.  On last week’s form, more than 60.

You see, just as the gutter press fill their pages with effluent to sell papers, the BBC knows that Stupid sells.  The Daily Mail sells millions of copies a month with headlines describing Tony Blair as somewhere between Karl Marx and Satan.  We all know that the Mail’s political stance is more right wing than the bastard love child of George Bush and Heinrich Himmler reporting for Fox News on how attractive Anne Widdecombe was in her youth, and that fox hunting is just a bit of harmless fun.  However, it is still one of the best selling tabloids in the country.  Why is this?  Are the masses of middle England crammed with closet Fascists with an unexplainable love of Cliff Richard?  Not that the other tripe served up by the red tops is any better.  They, along with the likes of Hello and Heat fellate the celebrity culture, building up talentless, vacuous, oxygen thieves to the point that they become the news.  Take the coverage last week of the Page Three girl from ‘I’m a Celebrity’ who beat war, famine and recession onto the front pages by eating a Kangaroo testicle.  Whatever next?  Eat your own faeces and win a holiday?  Anything other than actual news will suffice.

The media have the job of reporting news which is in the public interest.  If this tat is what the British public wants, then I’m moving to Bhutan.

• UrbanFox wrote ...

• at 17:48, Monday 1 December 2008

"Got your ticket to Bhutan yet?"

• NewbieDoo wrote ...

• at 12:59, Saturday 18 April 2009

" couldn't have put it better myself. Beautifully and cleverly written. You will never get a job with the red tops with such eloquence. Love the use of the word 'fellate' and the term 'how many massacred Iraqis.....etc'
:)
"