Forums › Life › Politics, Media & Current Events › Nice one John
About time someone stood up and said it…to be fair I think there are a lot of other people in the media who share his views and even loath the projects they are working on for the same reasons; but jobs are hard to keep and there is so much competition so they can’t afford to speak out..
I’d disagree about Banzai though – that can be quite funny and I don’t find it racist or anything like that (its intended as a satire of Japanese TV); and I do have oriental ancestry! (I am one of the few people who can tell that Bert Kwouks “Engrish” accent is South Chinese rather than Japanese 😀 )
By Darren Waters
BBC News Online entertainment staff in Edinburgh
BBC Radio 4 news presenter John Humphrys has attacked British reality television as “seedy, cynical and harmful” to society.
Humphrys, who presents the Today programme, told an audience of media executives at the Edinburgh Television Festival on Friday night that “some of our worst television is indeed indefensible”.
Humphrys is known for his tough-talking style
He called for greater regulation of terrestrial television and even possible government intervention to ensure standards are maintained.
The three-day festival is host to the most important figures in British television, and features talks and seminars given by the heads of Channel 4, Five, Sky and the BBC.
Humphrys used the prestigious McTaggart lecture to say reality TV “eroded the distinction between the public and the private, which is a profoundly important aspect of our culture”.
He called Channel 4’s hit show Big Brother “damaging” and said the most recent show had “bequeathed us a legacy; the way to get ratings is to get evil”.
Reality TV turns human beings into freaks for us to gawp at
John Humphrys
People who wanted to watch reality television could do so on subscription channels but society should “limit the harm” by stronger regulation of commercial channels by the government, he said.
The Cardiff-born presenter said TV was now “a battle between people who are concerned about society and those whose overwhelming interest is simply to make programmes that make money”.
Humphrys also warned that news coverage of politics should not be made “more fun” in an attempt to boost public interest.
The quality of the best television is not just as good as it ever was, I suspect… some of it is even better
John Humphrys
He said he disagreed with the former BBC director general Greg Dyke who said it was the broadcaster’s job to make politics less boring by making the coverage less boring.
“We shouldn’t be trying to lure [viewers and listeners] into politics by pretending that it’s just another game show.
“Greg got it wrong,” he said.
And as the presenter on Radio 4 when Andrew Gilligan’s news report into the government’s Iraq dossier unleashed a storm of controversy, he said news needed “more, not less in-depth interviewing of politicians”.
I’ve been reminded that television… can help maintain the momentum that takes us from barbarity to civilisation
John Humphrys
In a thinly-veiled dig at the BBC’s measures taken since the Hutton report criticised the BBC’s approach to news, he said mistakes would always be made “however many notes we take and however many people we send back to college”.
He told the conference he has not watched television for the last five years, but said he had based his opinions on watching programmes sent to him by executives as examples of the best of the medium.
He praised programmes such as Channel 4’s Operatunity and the BBC’s Life of Mammals, saying he had been “informed, entertained and deeply moved by some of what I’ve seen”.
Operatunity’s winners were Denise Leigh and Jane Gilchrist [R]
“I’ve been reminded that television… can help maintain the momentum that takes us from barbarity to civilisation”.
But he said a “vast amount of the rest is simply mediocre” and did not tell the audience if his recent viewing would mean he would become a regular viewer again.
The veteran broadcaster expressed incredulity that programmes such as Your Face or Mine, The Pilot Show, Banzai and Nip/Tuck were considered quality television.
Examples of good television “cannot pay the dues of the bad when the bad is indefensible”, he added.
I’m personally profoundly relieved that the BBC has avoided the worst excesses of reality television
John Humphrys
And television was “more aggressive and confrontational” and “vulgar and obsessed with sex” than he remembered.
He warned that such television could “coarsen” and “brutalise” and said the level of aggression he found in soaps “fits my definition of harmful – especially given that they’re broadcast pre-watershed”.
He also admitted that the BBC produced its share of rubbish and quality programmes – the corporation’s responsibilities were greater than they have ever been, he added.
after several years living in different countries, sometimes sqatting, sometimes in a van, sometimes in a house (gasp) I got very used to not having a TV.
The state of the shite that fills the airways has lead me to not have a TV. The licence van came round and they seemed really baffeld that I don’t have a TV.
so I guess I agree with Jon
get on jon
I got rid of my telly a year or so ago – it’s just not worth the license money any more.
I’ve been steering clear of the UK media backpakcing for a year. No tv, radio or ”heat magazine” being shoved in your face at every news stand so i carried on throughout this year. It’s good ’cause when you do watch TV now, it’s usually late night junk which is the best with your mates for an hour. World’s wildest police chases anyone???
The telly in my computer room doesn’t have an antenna input – its only used as a preview monitor for incoming/outgoing video sources for my party videos (like the first moot one with the “out of town” bit on the start)
As a kid I had ambitions to work in the media for years all through my teenage years and early 20s (this was the era of 80s yoof TV and other such stuff) – only to find by the mid 90s there were no longer many “paying” jobs in production – it was all unpaid work experience!
Finally in 1998 I got a job as a project engineer in the TV industry – by then a lot of stuff was outsourced – most of the time just did all the boring stuff like set up the kit in a factory in the arse-end of Reading – I think I only visited a “real” studio or edit facility about 3 times in my career. At least there I learnt a lot of useful stuff about video and audio kit which are skills I still have today.
in 2001 I got laid off as the company blew their cash reserves on a dotcom venture which screwed up – and TBH I wasn’t too sad to leave. At least I had had a secure income for 3 years; some people I know work in production its all bits and pieces of work here and there as there are no large media companies left who recruit permanent production staff; its all outsourced to indies who run on shoestring budgets.
There is (or was) money in telly but its swallowed up by lawyers, accountants, admin staff and the odd star talent who grabs as much as they can until they are broken by the tabloid exposés and their careers ended.
Reality TV is popular with the industry because it is cheap and simple – why hire expensive camera ops, producers, creatives etc when you can virtually feed a surveillance camera input into an edit suite and come out with a programme!
I once noticed on an evening of ITV1 prime-time shows that 80% of the on-screen talent was in fact dead (there was a spate of older actors dying over the last few years; co-incidental with downsizing and fewer contracts!) – the rest was reality shows.
Another hard lesson to learn; I saw how much corporate politics, real hate and confrontation there was in the media industry behind the screens; its hardly surprising its carried over to on the screen now, and that those who take part in reality shows are seen as expandable scum.
The saddest part of it is the British TV industry was once one of the best in the world..
Yep. It’s reality TV that is making it virtually impossible to produce a well written show/documentary. The public costs peanuts (usually nothing) to film.
I must admit that I do enjoy some of the shit though. Jackass, Banzai, Experimental etc.
I’ve been thinking for ages that we are getting closer and closer to hosting a proramme like running man.
funnily enough Granada (who took over ITV) have downsized and closed down all regional production centres apart from GRA Manchester (obviously), LWT (they still need to compete for London area with BBC) and Anglia Norwich (where Trisha is made!)
Originally posted by BioTech
Yep. It’s reality TV that is making it virtually impossible to produce a well written show/documentary. The public costs peanuts (usually nothing) to film.I must admit that I do enjoy some of the shit though. Jackass, Banzai, Experimental etc.
IMO those are more “unreality” TV! 😀
They are obvious comedy programmes; not meant to be taken seriously; the people who take part in them know they are the butt of the jokes, can laugh at themselves and don’t care.
If someone busts themselves up on Jackass (and those guys have had plenty trips to hospital IIRC!) they did it with the full knowledge this could be the end result. Banzai and Experimental are silly and intended to be so.
The ones which rightly perturb me are the ones where peoples relationships / friendships etc are deliberately stretched to the limit and perhaps to the point of destruction to make a good segment on-screen. That IMO is totally unacceptable.
Most definately not reality tv. But people tend to class them in the same bracket of ‘bottom of the barrel’ tv.
Oh, and thank god Trisha survived the downsize eh?! I broke into a sweat when I started reading that. What would the world come to without Trisha helping people with their relationships. She seems to find the root of all problems is cannabis with most people anyway. Hurah for Trisha.
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Forums › Life › Politics, Media & Current Events › Nice one John
