This is topic And the moral of the story is.... in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by imogen (Member # 5485) on :
 
you can never look too closely...

Either that or reality tv has gone way too far.
 
Posted by Starla* (Member # 5835) on :
 
Oh, man, and I thought Temptation Island was bad.

I also forgot how lousy British newswriting is......
 
Posted by imogen (Member # 5485) on :
 
Well it is the Sun after all - home of the page 3 girl and all that.

Probably not representative of the whole of the UK news industry... though maybe [Wink]
 
Posted by Starla* (Member # 5835) on :
 
No---it is that bad.

I have a textbook I can't get rid of from a journalism professor I had 2 years ago. It's a british textbook on journalistic writing.

Terrible. Terrible. I know 8th graders who write better. It even said 'the americans take journalism training more seriously' and 'attribution is optional.'

Plus, that same semester, I went to England for a week. I got the middle class newspaper (the sun is an equivalent of the tabloids). The front page story was the drummer from REM going to court for getting violent on a British Airways plane. It took up 3 pages.

My mom got a few magazines. She was like "sheesh, you write better than these people, and you're not even a professional yet!"

No, really, it's bad.
 
Posted by imogen (Member # 5485) on :
 
To be fair, American newspapers are pretty good (with the exception of the Weekly World Times... [Big Grin] ).

My family lived in Wales for a while and we found The Independant on Sunday very good - mind you it was the only good british paper we found during the 6 months we stayed there!

Of course, you haven't seen bad-but-trying-very-hard-to-be-serious journalism till you've seen some of the smaller Australian newspapers. The Northern Territory times is a cracker: I was in Darwin for a week and the first day the front page title was 'Croc bites hairy legs'. The second was 'Dog attacks Croc'...
[ROFL]
I don't think it's considered a newspaper unless it mentions a crocodile attack at least once!

[ November 03, 2003, 12:41 AM: Message edited by: imogen ]
 
Posted by imogen (Member # 5485) on :
 
In fact check out today's front cover story!

[Laugh]
 
Posted by Starla* (Member # 5835) on :
 
Oh, dear god........ [ROFL]
(edited for laugh content)

[ November 03, 2003, 12:48 AM: Message edited by: Starla* ]
 
Posted by Mr.Funny (Member # 4467) on :
 
I think that the moral of the story is to not be stupid enough to participate in reality TV shows...
 
Posted by Anna (Member # 2582) on :
 
This makes me think about the thread "what if John Paul hab been ugly" . I mean, there's no sexual harassment in this, they DID agree to touch and be touched by her... What if John Paul had been ugly
 
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
I dislike the underscoring of disgust at another group of human beings. I know, I know, there's a lot of politics and religion embroiled with this, but -- different-shaped lumps of flesh, guys. It's not like you found out she was only 13 yrs old. I'd hope that would squick 'em out far more. [Frown] (It actually might, and for the sake of my mood for today, I'll just pretend that I know this for sure.)
 
Posted by Megachirops (Member # 4325) on :
 
Hmm. The link was fine, but the pop-under riled my work firewall nanny. It says it was pornograpy.

Just goes to show I can't even trust a link if it's from a newspaper.

[Grumble]
 
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
 
I think that is the prettiest transvestite I have ever seen. I can see how those guys were duped. The producer was lucky to get off with just a punch or two--I'll bet dollars to donuts he had extra security on-hand at the kiss-off (or skirt-off) of this con.

Because that's all it is, at root--a con job to embarrass and humiliate 6 guys for the enjoyment and titillation of the TV public. Definitely the sleaziest "reality" show I've heard of. I hope the suckers are sucessful in their their legal action to restrain the producers from exhibiting the footage, and that they win damage awards as well. [Mad] [Mad]

[ November 03, 2003, 09:31 AM: Message edited by: Morbo ]
 
Posted by Anna (Member # 2582) on :
 
Morbo, aren't almost all reality shows made to humiliate people ? That's the way I feel it...
 
Posted by Megachirops (Member # 4325) on :
 
Maybe that's why I think almost all of them are sleazy . . .
 
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
 
True, Anna, but this show sinks to new depths. It's one thing to dupe that guy in the Joe Schmo show into thinking he was in a contest, and then surround him with actors. That prank had a sweet undercurrent of finding the most likable guy and tricking him. He appreciated the gag, it seemed. And of course he got a $100,000 payday.

It's quite another to lie about the sex of a contestant, have men vie over him/her, and then snigger at the results. I am not a violent man nor am I homophobic, but if this joke had been played on me the producer would be shopping for dentures due to inhaling most of his teeth. Only the callous and cruel would think this is a funny joke, IMHO.
 
Posted by imogen (Member # 5485) on :
 
quote:
I think that is the prettiest transvestite I have ever seen
I completely agree!

quote:
It's not like you found out she was only 13 yrs old. I'd hope that would squick 'em out far more
The sad thing is, I'm not sure it would. The number of statutory rape cases I've read where the defendant argues they didn't know the girl was only 11 and then gets angry at her / states that 'she was asking for it anyway'....
[Mad]

On a less horrible note: the legal action has been successful and the show won't go to air: it was in the paper this morning.
I guess it's case of [Monkeys] and pretend it never happened for the contestants
[Smile]
 


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