MGEITF 2004: Mind-Numbing Reality Television Comes Under Fire
Influential BBC broadcaster and journalist John Humphrys has delivered a scathing attack on the corrupting influence of reality television, accusing shows like Big Brother and Wife Swap of being “meretricious, seedy and cynical”.
Humphrys, presenter of BBC Radio Four’s flagship Today programme, criticised some of the most senior executives in British television for producing too many ‘mind-numbing’ and ‘witless’ programmes that damage society.
Delivering the high-profile MacTaggart lecture at this year’s Edinburgh International Television Festival, the veteran journalist and former news reader said that reality television has a coarsening effect that “turns human beings into freaks for us to gawp at”.
The bulk of his attack was aimed at Channel 4’s Big Brother, which he suggested debased society by eroding the distinction between the public and the private. However, he also took a swipe at the exploitation of those that took part in Wife Swap, the misery of EastEnders and triviality of programmes like ITV’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.
In what was a deeply philosophical and well argued critique of the state of British television, Humphrys said: “The good television of today is probably better that the best television of the old days. But the bad television of today is worse. It is damaging. It coarsens and turns us into voyeurs. The good cannot pay the dues of the bad when the bad is indefensible.”
The veteran broadcaster, who claims to have not watched television for the last five years, asked a selection of 16 UK channel controllers to each send him ten tapes that they thought made a strong case for why we need television in this country.
Humphrys praised some of the 160 programmes he received, with Featherboy, Ali G and Life of Mammals being cited as examples of superb television. However, he branded other programmes such as The Pilot Show, Banzai and Nip/Tuck as “rubbish”.
In a speech that paid homage to the views of notorious moral rights campaigner Mary Whitehouse, Humphrys said: “This is not just bad television in the sense that it’s mediocre, pointless, puerile even. It’s bad because it is damaging.”
He added: “Mary Whitehouse said television was on a downward moral spiral. Foul language and fornication would become routine if nothing were done to stop it. They all said she was wrong. Was she?”
Humphrys pointed out that the title of his lecture was ‘First do no Harm’, which is the main principle of the Hippocratic Oath. He said: “Doctors have been swearing to this for the last two and a half thousand years. It’s not such a bad principle for broadcasters.”
The plain speaking Today programme presenter, who has a reputation for grilling senior politicians, went on to take a few post Hutton pot-shots at the Government. He said: “We should not be fearful of standing up to those in power. That is our job, to be fearless in the face of power.”
He added: “What that means is that we should approach politicians not with an attitude of cynicism, but of scepticism. We should subject them to rigorous and relentless scrutiny. That is what the public wants and that is what the public has a right to expect.”
MGEITF: 020 7430 1333 www.mgeitf.co.uk
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