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Brass Eye Paedophilia Special
Ive been following American news for sometime now and getting most of it from American news networks. Previously anything i heard i had seen or read in the British media. There is a stark difference in style between British and American news reporting, especially how it is reported on the television. But there are some similarities, i would say that many of the American news (Fox mostly) networks are ever so similar to the British tabloid press, sensationalist, hypocritically moralistic and down right GUFF!
British news thankfully has not descended into the Partisan warfare of American News Networks (yet!), mostly because the BBC sets a certain standard of neutrality and quality that other networks try to emulate. You will never see on British TV presenters bragging about the ratings of their news cast and channel compared to others....... The British media is not perfect though and as such it has been at the butt of many a satire show, which segways perfectly to what i really want to talk about...... The most Important TV show of the 1990's..... Brass Eye.
Brass Eye was the creation of Chris Morris and is a satire on how news is presented in the press. Broadcast from 1997 the show made lots of stupid people very angry, and i love it when a show does that.
It was conceived as a sequel to Morris's earlier spoof news programmes On the Hour and The Day Today, and satirised the media's portrayal of various social ills, in particular, sensationalism and the creation of moral panics.
Its genius, i would show you a clip now but all the Youtube Video's have been disabled but here is one from The Day Today.....
Brass Eye only lasted one series and had a one off special show as it created such a moral storm in the media.......
Brass Eye aroused considerable controversy when it was first broadcast, primarily because prominent public figures were fooled into pledging onscreen support for fictitious, and often plainly absurd, charities and causes.
Morris highlighted how easy it was to get well known public figures to talk about and pledge support for things that they had no knowledge off. The first and only series was brilliant, covering the topics off.......
"Animals" (29 January 1997)
"Drugs" (5 February 1997)
"Science" (12 February 1997)
"Sex" (19 February 1997)
"Crime" (26 February 1997)
"Decline" (5 March 1997)
These shows as good as they are, pale in comparison to the very controversial Paedophilia Special. Making comedy out of Paedophilia! Not really, it was comedy about how Paedophilia was reported. An excellent satire on such a unspeakable problem in comedy circles.
In 2001, the series was repeated, along with a new show, which tackled the subject of paedophilia and the associated moral panic prevalent in parts of the British media at the time following the death of Sarah Payne, focusing on the controversial 'name and shame' campaign of the News of the World. This included an incident in 2000, in which a paediatrician in Newport had the word 'PAEDO' daubed in yellow paint on her home.
Around 2000 complaints were received regarding the show, and some politicians hastily spoke out against Morris. Beverley Hughes described the show as "unspeakably sick" (while admitting that she had not seen the programme) and David Blunkett said he was "dismayed" by it. Although she did not criticise the show, Tessa Jowell was reported as asking the Independent Television Commission to revise its rules to allow such a controversial show to be prevented from broadcast even though she had not watched the actual episode of the show. There was also a vociferous tabloid campaign against Morris, who refused to discuss the issue. The episode went on to win a Broadcast magazine award in 2002.
The show caused a furor among sections of the British tabloid press. The Daily Star printed an article decrying Morris and the show, apparently unaware of the piece's ironic and hypocritical juxtaposition with a separate article about the then 15-year-old singer Charlotte Church's breasts under the headline "She's a big girl now". Similarly, and also with no hint of irony, the Daily Mail featured pictures of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who were 13 and 11 at the time respectively, in their bikinis next to a headline describing Brass Eye as "Unspeakably Sick". Defenders of the show argued that the media reaction to the show reinforced its satire of the media's hysteria and hypocrisy on the subject of paedophilia
The reason i bring this up is that the traits that Morris highlighted in Brass Eye are oh so evident in American News, Bill O is an obvious example of that, it was noted by Charlie Brooker that Bill O raged against "permissive society" at one point then sits there drooling over Bikini clad girls the next. Further to that there is the whole abortion issue which resulted in the murder of George Tiller.
I would love to see what would happen if Brass Eye was Broadcast in America, i could only imagine the complete hypocracy of the many News moralists...... LMFAO
There are plenty of clips on youtube heres the link..... Brass Eye
2 comments:
This is really interesting. I will be looking it up for sure. :)
Good good! You very much should, let me know what your thoughts are, i think it is the most important TV show of the 90's as important as to comedy as Monty Python was.
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