rudeboy, I don't think Kanelli is from the UK? Or are you replying to me? Because it was me that just said you can't compare UK to other 'less civilised countries'. And I am sorry to disagree but you CAN blame the parents, everyone knows the difference between right and wrong, they make their own decisions as to whether to apply the rules or not, and if parents are so lazy or uncaring that they let their kids run riot then they ARE to blame. It is totally copping out to try to pin the most basic blame on a variety of successive governments. As Kanelli already said 'it is parents that are most influential on their own children'. Kids go to school at 4-5 years old and they are often already out of control, before the state has even had a crack at them....plus I personally witnessed teachers being verbally torn apart by thuggish parents for daring to try to discipline their vicious little darlings. People of all educational standards have always brought children into the world, but it is only recently that moral standards have actualy been ignored as irrelevant by large parts of the populace. That's not the fault of the Government, it is the fault of society itself. Blame the media if you like, and its greed which has led to it catering to the lowest common denominator in its programming, hugely reinforcing examples of bad behaviour and moral decline. In a free society unfortunately it is not the responsibility of the Government to censor programming and publications except in extreme circumstances..
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http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/robynriley/index.php/heraldsun/comments/the_reality_of_big_brother_axing/
Robyn Riley
Sunday, July 20, 2008 at 01:01pm
IN the end, the demise of Big Brother had nothing to do with community values or the quality of its product. It had everything to do with ratings.
So all the show’s detractors should take a deep breath before claiming some kind of victory in Ten Network’s decision to euthanise the show after eight years of gratuitous titillation and boorish, not to mention boring, behaviour.
If anything, the show failed because it no longer had the ability to shock or anger. (speedhump says: so there is far worse to come as the public demand ever more shocking entertainment, as Juvenal said: 'give them bread and circuses'.....)
That’s the worry. Anyone who doesn’t think TV will continue to look at the lowest common denominator for reality TV lives in La-La Land.
http://www.ciao.co.uk/Channel_4_Big_Brother__Review_5306722
from which the following are excepts:
If you haven't heard of Big Brother, then you must be a very, very lucky person. That's because you've figured out a succesful way of avoiding the interminable cancer of thought known as commercial television and the mainstream media.
All in all, another extremely tedious, lowest-common-denominator, pile of crap - serving to the needs of the rubber-necks of this country by providing them with cheap semi-voyeruistic crap of the quality we have come to expect of modern broadcasters. Big Brother harmonises quite well with the broadcasting mantra of today - ratings over quality.