Broadcasting House a programme who got it's name from a building and is in search of a point. Was having a jolly good time last Sunday 19th Sept, with it's 'Country Vs Town' and 'Is democracy working?' themes sparked off by the pro fox hunting invasion in the house of commons this week.
What got me about me this particular edition of this rather directionless Sunday Supplement type programme was how it just managed to miss.... ahem, the real point of the story. Mind you to be fair to them it wouldn't be part of their remit to go anything below the superficial. Can't you just imagine these corporate, management / journalist types (Richard Madeley stereotypes one and all) looking for 'interesting angles' on the latest news.
So let me bold and put forward what I think is the real story. What we have here, is behaviour that is perfectly normal for a democracy in an ever changing society - A clash between two powerful groups interests. In this case, it's between the still powerful remnants of the British Aristocracy clashing with the government. The Upper Classes may be much less visible these days but they still wield considerable power behind the scenes and within the power structure of this society via the house of Lords.
Tony Blair desperate to gain back some popularity lost due to the remorseless attacks from the British media decided to bite the bullet and take on the fox hunting fraternity once and for all. Poll after poll told him the majority of British Society considered this an indefensible activity, but the Aristocracy have been out maneouvring the government up to now by creating that Countryside Alliance pressure group and making it a Country V's Town issue This is a well used but effective trick in which you a hide a dubious activity amongst more legitimate concerns. These other groups get some publicity for their particular cause, so nobody wants to rocks the boat and thus a false cohesion of unity is formed. Everybody's a winner. As a matter of interest as a once townie but who is now living in a small town, I know of people who where threatened with the sack by the local gentry if they didn't go on the that march about two years ago.
So Broacasting house tried to (as the media does so often in the interests of making a programme more interesting) make the debate seem more 50/50 between the pro's v's the anti's. It does this, because the media thrives and survives on this kind of dramatic tension. To do this it must ignore the real truth which that is Fox Hunting is a minority sport enjoyed by the Upper Classes but despised by 'virtually' everybody else. And so hence we had a programme that waffled on about town vs country debates and democracy issues. I had to turn it off !
But desperate for a bit of entertainment I turned on the radio later on..... amd blow me down ! In the fictional farming land of The Archers we had some 'Ooh Ar' rural stereo type echoing some of this programmes themes when he said something like it was a 50/50 debate between those liked and disliked fox hunting. Yes I know that it was a fictional character saying this, but I can't help feeling the producers are all singing from the same song sheets. I dislike The Archers anyway, so it was in extreme desperation when I turned over to Radio 2 to Steve Wright's Sunday Love songs.
I never realised I could sink so low !
As Kingdom Hospital left our UK screens virtually unnoticed, I've just got to say that despite a cast of weirdos, a vicious looking anteater, a pile of ghosts which was all wrapped up in a incomprehensible plot padded out with surreal scenes over too many episodes....... It was still more realistic (hah!) and entertaining than all those soapy dramas like casualty ER etc.
I've got a not entirely unserious theory about these hospital drama programmes, which is that - They are watched only by fit and healthy people who've never set foot inside of a hospital.
Monica ......she's like a stain you just can't get rid of.
A Semen stained dress accidentally preserved as evidence
The absence of the threatened post presidency litigation for 'Whitewatergate'
This was character 'assassination'.
So after Clinton we have Monica, and absolutely no mention of how this non-story became a political scandal. The only story the media is interested in is that he's lying and he's supposed to tell the truth. Well as Mr Burns, fictitious Springfield power plant owner, once said 'Running for Governor is something no honest man could afford'. I think the main reason why they ignore the real story, is simply that the 'Clinton/ Lewinsky soap opera' is too good a story for the media to drop, and the media at heart is an old fashioned Drama Queen
