Friday, January 07, 2005
Just spent a couple of days in the fever wards, all right, in my bed under a big duvet, after some food poisoning. Now that I've got my various emissions under control you can expect a return to the normal levels of crap.
I can't find anything on-line yet about independent radio news reports that the BBC Television Centre is going to be blockaded by an unspecified number of Christians protesting the showing on BBC tomorrow night of Jerry Springer: The Opera, although the usual suspects have been making the usual kind of complaints and stunts (The Sun deserve some sort of special award for managing to use the misery of the disaster of the Asian Tsunami to slam the BBC for showing Jerry Springer, nice moral equivalence guys). I must admit I was a bit surprised that the Beeb decided to put this on BBC Two rather than Three or Four, but especially after the whole thing with the Sikh play in Brum last month (and the whole 'incitement to religious hatred bill' thing which I initially thought was a good idea but now I'm dubious about, surely Jerry Springer would have to shut down to avoid prosecution?) I hope we'll stop caving to the people who seem to believe their imaginations should define legal policy. For those of us whose imaginations tell them to live and let live with regards to other people's religious beliefs we should support the BBC wanting to show this, regardless of whether afterwards we decide it is rubbish.
The most ridiculous thing was some hapless vicar who in the radio report said something priceless along the lines of "well, you have to go the a theatre if you want to see Jerry Springer, the difference here is that you just go into the living room and it's there." Your God gave you fingers and an off-button for a reason dimwit.
I can't find anything on-line yet about independent radio news reports that the BBC Television Centre is going to be blockaded by an unspecified number of Christians protesting the showing on BBC tomorrow night of Jerry Springer: The Opera, although the usual suspects have been making the usual kind of complaints and stunts (The Sun deserve some sort of special award for managing to use the misery of the disaster of the Asian Tsunami to slam the BBC for showing Jerry Springer, nice moral equivalence guys). I must admit I was a bit surprised that the Beeb decided to put this on BBC Two rather than Three or Four, but especially after the whole thing with the Sikh play in Brum last month (and the whole 'incitement to religious hatred bill' thing which I initially thought was a good idea but now I'm dubious about, surely Jerry Springer would have to shut down to avoid prosecution?) I hope we'll stop caving to the people who seem to believe their imaginations should define legal policy. For those of us whose imaginations tell them to live and let live with regards to other people's religious beliefs we should support the BBC wanting to show this, regardless of whether afterwards we decide it is rubbish.
The most ridiculous thing was some hapless vicar who in the radio report said something priceless along the lines of "well, you have to go the a theatre if you want to see Jerry Springer, the difference here is that you just go into the living room and it's there." Your God gave you fingers and an off-button for a reason dimwit.
