Audrey blogs at Audrey and the Bad Apples.
News just in! Channel Ten is smutty!
According to Today Tonight, that bastion of journalistic integrity we all know, love and respect, Channel Ten’s coverage of the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Sydney simply. went. too. far.
Outraged viewers rang in droves to complain to Sydney’s 2GB Radio presenter Chris Smith. Most offensive to them appeared to be Matty Newton’s ‘sexual’ antics with John Foreman. At one point, as TT shockingly demonstrated, Newton appeared to mime playing the piano with his penis. In another scene, he licked Foreman’s earlobe while stroking his face. IN A FAMILY TIMESLOT PEOPLE.
Personally, I would suggest the most offensive part of this display was the evident mocking of homosexuality present within it. But then, I’m not part of Middle Australia.
Of course, Today Tonight made obvious mention of other Channel Ten scandals such as the infamous Turkey Slap and Axle’s Big White Head, both of which provide clear evidence that the naughty network is run by hedonistic, goat slaughtering Satanists.
Chris Smith responded to his listeners with the kind of rampant enthusiasm one might expect from a station that employs Alan Jones – blanket condemnation! In fact, he asked, is it not time for the broadcast rights of such an event to be taken from Channel Ten and entrusted to the more responsible hands of Nine or Seven?
It’s unsurprising that Seven would run with such an obvious dig at its competitor.
What’s more disturbing is their insidious attempt to primarily utilise the opinion of a radio presenter whose undisclosed career history includes “years spent at Channel Seven and the Nine Network, where he travelled the world in his role as reporter and chief of staff, including six years at A Current Affair.”
I’m not defending Channel Ten’s approach to programming. What the eff purpose is Laguna Beach supposed to serve? But I do object to Today Tonight pushing a trumped up charge of indecency against a station that should instead be shunned for its lack of imagination and gay jokes rather than its inappropriate representation of same sex lovin’ during family time.
Peace out (I still love thee Matty N…)
Why am I not surprised that TT ran with it – they have been outraged all day on the News sites – right down to readers comments and polls.
Did A Current Affair do a story on it? Bert wouldn’t have been too pleased with his network.
I’m suprised that A Current Affair did not run the same story. It used to be that you could switch between TT and ACA and get the exact same stories.
And I’m with you on Laguna Beach. The promos are bad enough. TV has once again filled a much needed void.
Speaking of bad (journalistic) habits over the holiday season, what about the early reporting of former NSW premier, John Fahey’s privacy vis-a-vis the death of his daughter in a road crash. I can’t accurately recall which medium offended but the detail which concerned me was claims that father and daughter had not spoken for some four years. Alleged drug and relationship problems were also listed. Subsequent news reports (SMH) did not repeat any of this stuff suggesting someone had pulled someone into line somewhere.
There are some interesting reader responses to the Tele’s story. Not quite the unified howl of outrage the paper would have you believe.
Could it be that the Tele’s a little out of touch with modern mores? Or are people just a bit over this kind of slow-news-day confected outrage?
Talking about commercial media outlets having morals is a category mistake.
They only exist to sell our eyeballs to their advertisers. Which is fine as of itself and we all know how the game is played. But watching them scrambling for the high moral ground is like watching a horse mounting its jockey and assuring us it’s a cert in the 3rd at Flemington.
I was at home ill on new years’ eve and had channel ten on as a background to my vomiting. To me there were two highlights of bad taste:
1) Deni Hines has presumed to release a cover of “Son of a Preacher Man” as a single, and channel ten allowed her to broadcast a live version of it. I don’t know anyone else who gets to murder a cover and release it as a single just because their mother once played Mary Magdalene forty years ago.
2) A peaking ex-Big Brother reality show contestant dressed himself up in a wig and a mini, claimed to be Paris Hilton and proceeded to flaunt himself and be chased and spanked by other ex-Big Brother contestant. I am consistently bemused by the way Paris Hilton is treated as a socially acceptable target for abusive sexual parody. While proceeding from a long teadition of humour involving men dressing as women, this particular scene was fairly outrageous. If it had been broadcast on a sketch show and targeted at anyone other than Hilton there would have been huge complaints.
It seemed that everyone was tanked except me.
Thanks for the link Bill. I couldn’t find anything on it when I was scouting around yesterday. I love how people feel they can push a point by capitalising the most emotionally driven words…
Obnoxious
Integrity
Smutty
Hilarious!
Although, Tyson from Every Good Boy Eats Fruit left a comment on my site saying basically that gay people will take representation on tv wherever they can get it, and he and his friends didn’t have a problem with it. So perhaps I shouldn’t be getting too concerned about the lampooning of homosexuality? Of course, it’s crap if any minority grouping becomes so used to being ignored that they’ll take anything they can get in the way of representation.
Speaking of which, I noticed Austereo’s Sam Mac was part of a live stunt last night which saw him getting a spray tan. He got very sensitive about a suggestion to stencil something on his back. “You’re not writing ‘I love men’ are you?” They all laugh. Ha ha! Spray tan = gay.
Arleeshar, it sounds hideous. Personally, I can’t stand the way Big Brother ex-housemates are celebratised on Channel Ten. But then, I find the whole idea of a networks having their own gang of stars very irritating anyway. They ask viewers to observe who they consider to be the ‘beautiful people’ in an awe-stricken fashion, while ignoring the fact that to do so is the equivalent of watching extremely boring people congratulate themselves on being entirely mediocre.
And that’s an interesting point about satirising Paris Hilton. But it annoys me that people who complain don’t specify these things, instead choosing to get flustered about this vague idea of ‘family values’.
I’m sure Ten’s telecast was hideous on any number of levels. But that’s not really what this is about, is it?
Exactly. It’s like they don’t even try to hide their convoluted bias anymore. Fo’ shame.
I thought that the coverage was done (down?) to a budget. Boring crap that the ABC might flaunt as comedy.