It now seems that the BBC has received 30,000 complaints about a programme that has yet to air – Jerry Springer the Opera. If we’re not careful we’ll start suffering the same ridiculousness that’s currently afflicting American television.
The people complaining are organised – most notably by Mediawatch, but undoubtedly backed by various church groups. If people want to complain then they have every right, but I would hate to think that we were being censored. If this production is indeed blasphemous, then why haven’t campaigners been picketing theatres where it has been on for the last year or so? It’s no good complaining that the BBC are somehow a different case – if it’s entertainment that can be put on in legitimate theatres in the West End, then it can be shown on television.
The numbers being talked about are meaningless. Anyone with a few mates on the internet could probably drum up similar numbers – setting up automatic fax or email services to speed through the complaints.
As long as nobody capitulates, people can carry on complaining as far as I’m concerned.
Incidentally, I’m aware that I might seem that I’m using double standards, since I think it was a correct decision for the BBC not to show Popetown when they withdrew it. That was actually for different reasons and because I felt that it was a series that was discriminating against religion needlessly. That doesn’t mean that it’s not right to make comedy of religion – much of what has gone on in the name of religion would indeed be comical were it not for the seriousness of the implications of it.
I still like to remind my parents every so often that back in 1979, they signed a petition at the back of our church after mass, asking for Monty Python’s The Life of Brian to be banned. Even as a nine year old, I refused to sign it, even though it’d be years before I was even allowed to watch AA films.
Incidentally the claims that there are over 8,000 swear words in the two hour broadcast seem absurd to say the least. The two hour broadcast will be 7,200 seconds long – so we should expect over one swear word per second. I doubt that a Tourette’s suffering horseracing commentator could match that! (See this piece in Mediaguardian (free registration required), referencing a Telegraph piece I couldn’t find).