Over the last week it's become obvious to me that there is something about crap current affairs TV that turns ordinary reasonable and fairly intelligent people into raving idiots. Two people who I thought were interesting and sensible confessed they had to go home to watch <insert name of show here>, because it had a story about how companies were ripping the consumers off by weighing the liquid inside packaging. Now is it just me or there is something seriously wrong with that sentence.
The worst offender is Today Tonight. They continue to not only "bend the truth" but outright lie to get a story. It's well known that the quality standard is not high, a quick search on media watch turned up 12 different incidences with the show in the last 6 months yet the "general public" eat it all up. What is wrong with people?
Current affairs shows started out as hard hitting reporting but since the late 90's they have become a joke. Is it because the standard demanded by the people has dropped? Or is it just an indication of the state of the media? When did it become more important to know about the discrepancies between the advertised weights on packages than the civil unrest in Nepal.
I suppose what's even worse is that the show is still on the air. Don't we have a media authority that is supposed to stop crap like the current affairs shows from being on tv? God knows they tried extremely hard last year when Big Brother showed lewd acts with a penis on their late night show, well isn't making Australia stupider an even worse offence?
Comments
Ahh, you're missing the point.
The target audience of shows like Today Tonight and newspapers like The Daily Telegraph isn't you. It's bogans. Think "wife beater living in the western suburbs".
It's people who drive Commodores, who have six kids from four different partners, and are too stupid to know that when you receive a letter in the mail saying someone in Nigeria wants to transfer $100,000,000 dollars into your back account that it's a scam. These are the type of people that send "security deposits" overseas in response to these scams.
These are the kind of people who complain about rising petrol prices, and expect that the Government can actually do something about it. These are the kind of people who just can't say no when a financial institute offers them a loan at 75% interest, and think that this high-interest personal loan will get them out of debt. Worst of all, these are the kind of people who think that voting for Labour (or worse, the Greens) will actually do something about it.
Shows such as Today Tonight exist to make these people feel better about themselves. They appeal to the "underdog", and make them think "at least *SOMEONE* is doing something about it".