Give me smut and nothing but!

[brightlywoven]

 OK, so most of the BBC Ross/Brand commentary is exceedingly boring. Stupid idea, and not funny. But how many of the people complaining would actually ever have been listening to the show? Essentially the whole storm seems to have been brewed up in order
a) for boring people to have something to whine about (see http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/ for the long history of this)
b) for the conservatives to undermine public broadcasting on the flimsiest of pretexts.
c) both

I was unimpressed to hear the chairman of the BBC trust complaining about programs on the beeb sailing close to the wind (in general) around 'young and impressionable' listeners, and declaring this must stop. Thinking about the level of (albeit clever) smut on radio 4 programs like ISIHAC, it's clear that the debate about censorship hasn't advanced much since the obscenity trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover, where the prosecuting QC asked the jury 'would you allow your wife or even your servants to read this book'. That is to say, no of course such material doesn't corrupt *me* but won't you *please* think of the children???

Comments

[overconvergent.livejournal.com]

I guess that I don't really have a right to be outraged as I don't pay the TV tax, but I do think that (a) it was a stupid idea and (b) I can't really blame people who are against the BBC for jumping on this bandwagon (if they're going to lob easy balls they can't complain if people knock them all around the pitch). So many things seem to have gone wrong here simultaneously that I interpret the conflation of issues as just not being sure which one to pursue first.