Only two people complained when they first heard the infamous show.
Now thousands have complained.
Of course, Brand and Ross are vulgar wallies. But the public reaction is strikingly disproportionate. One expects, as one with the last such hapless celebrity caught up in such a fit - Jade Goody - that the mob just want them to be hung and quartered.
The British public don't half like their periodic fits of self-righteous morality.
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
I can't help but feel that the public's response to this was far more justifiable than the backlash against the Goody creature, which in truth boiled down to little more than women being bitchy to one another (as they are wont to do). But we are nothing, if not consistent, in our mass expressions of righteous indignation at the behaviour of those whom we choose to call stars.
We are possible even more irritated in this case given that the taxpayer, albeit indirectly, pays £6mn a year for the "talents" of Woss, which are just as elusive as those of Jade Goody.
I can't say that we should care much about the fate of Brand and Ross. They make an extremely good living from what is fairly juvenile behaviour and aren't exactly reticent in picking on others.
I'm much more concerned over the press and media picking on those who lack the resources and power of Brand and Ross. These two are more perpetrators than victims - hardly the most reticent of people when they pick on a weak target.
As for the BBC's lame defence that this was "edgy comedy" - well that was an insult to the intelligence.
If a couple of self-publicising, outspoken, well-paid media stars fell foul of the very machine that created them, it's hardly a tragedy. They just got in wrong - they are free to take up another career if they don't like the attention.
I think there are far more disturbinbg ways in which free speech is constrained in this country. The demonisation of those expressing inconventient views is something we all need to be aware of (and I do not leave out some "liberal" commentators from that obervation). Behaving like a couple of louts just does not fall into that category.
Post a Comment