Big Brother v. the thought police

It seems it doesn't take much to raise the ire of the baby-boomer, "family-values" conservative politicians. When it does get raised, as it seems to have been following the latest notable happenings on Big Brother, we see the typical knee-jerk reactions you'd expect from media-hungry pollies with an axe to grind and a constituency of like-minded potential voters to placate. Ms. Smack has cited a source as to the nature of the incident which saw two contestants removed from Big Brother. I make no claims as to the veracity of the depiction of the incident. Her source made claims as to what action would be taken by Channel 10/Endemol (sometime Saturday night by the sounds of it) that have not eventuated. The description of the incident should therefore be taken as hearsay. I can't confirm Ms. Smack's (or her source's) account of what transpired but it is conceivable, believable and, true or not, certainly puts into context the ensuing events. Two points though. Politicians should not be screaming for BB to be removed because this happened. It wasn't shown on television. True, it was broadcast on the internet but I'm told there's a lot worse shown on the internet. Also, from the stills I've seen it's hard to tell exactly what was going on. It's not extactly HDTV streaming. Second, when something like this does happen, why blame the TV show for merely being there? As has been revealed, the actions of the contestants concerned breached the rules of the show and the breach was dealt with accordingly by the show's producers. Police are taking no action on review of the evidence. So why shoot the messenger? No one's screaming to have the news taken off because they show people firing guns and potentially murdering innocent people? While BB is primarily for entertainment value, surely it has documentary value also. Aren't the pollies missing the bigger picture here? What goes on in a microcosm is always going to be a reflection of what goes on at a macro level. If two guys are engaging in a bit of sausage slapping, when they know they're being watched by any number of cameras 24/7, what does this say about the culture in which some males think this is an okay thing to do? And what else is going on in the minds and bedrooms of seemingly normal people all over the country who know they aren't having their every move monitored by a full TV crew? Why aren't the pollies citing statistics or studies on violent or sexual acts against women (or children, homosexuals, battered husbands for that matter) that go unreported because the victims concerned are either helpless (in a my-word-against-their-word way) or otherwise believe for whatever reason that behaviour like this is somehow acceptable? The TV show shouldn't be held accountable for somehow harming society. It should be commended for revealing deeper issues, cultural mores and trends that are evident, if not prevalent, in society. Personally, I'm not worried about a TV show depicting something as it really happened. That's what reality TV is all about. (Big surprise folks: reality has an ugly side!) I'm more worried about current affairs shows, for their constant skewing of a story to maximise outrage and ratings; polarisation of issues; the depiction of disputing neighbours as comedy figures; the implicit judgment handed down on any number of small business people by the deliberate blurring of the line between the failing to meet industry best-practice and the intention to commit fraud. Blatant breaches of laws, morals or community standards are always black and white. Newspapers are printed in black and white. The two go together. So it's the blatant breaches, the most heinous crimes, the biggest robberies and the worst refereeing decisions that are going to grab headlines. But what about the unnoticed bending of the rules, the spin-doctoring, the ever-so-slight manipluation of facts in an insidious attempt to sway opinions of people who don't even realised they're being influenced to reach a certain conclusion or adopt a certain viewpoint? A lot of what's in the media is blatant propaganda as journos and producers try to get their point across in an attempt to sway public opinion. BB is perhaps one of the only shows that, sponsorships aside, just shows people not trying to sell us something.