Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Patronising piffle

This posting is partly a gripe and partly an insight into the UK media’s attitude to older people.

On Sunday morning there is a radio programme on the BBC that is a look-back at the week on what is supposedly the thinking man/women’s channel (Radio 4).

There is a short slot when a group of worthies/celebrities, or people selected for some other ‘talent’, review the Sunday newspapers.

During the previous week the UK’s press has been full of stories about how the media, in particular the BBC, has been misleading the public. Amongst many stories there was an item that revealed that a programme that purports to show a survival expert ‘surviving’ is actually shot a short walk from a 5 star hotel where the star of the show spends his time in the bar and jacuzzi when not giving the impression that he is in the depths of darkest Africa.

Have a listen (This is file in .wmv format).

As the sound clip starts the person selecting and describing the story is a long since forgotten children’s TV presenter (Janet Ellis). After she has mumbled on for a minute or two you next hear somebody who sounds as if she is both mentally defective and suffering from a speech impediment. Unfortunately, she is a senior Member of Parliament (Gwyneth Dunwoody) - a women with an ego only matched by her naïve stupidity.

Finally you hear the words of wisdom from Peter Bazalgette. This guy has made a fortune from flooding UK TV with programming that makes the Jerry Springer show look like a discussion between a bunch of Nobel Prize winners.

Just listen to the arrogance of it all. Just listen to contempt these people have for the poor souls who are forced to pay for the BBC.

Most importantly just listen to Peter Bazalgette’s attitude to older people who he thinks are too dim to understand the “Grammar of Television”. Unfortunately, the views of this guy are all too common throughout the UK media. Dick Stroud

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