Channel 4 is 'rebuked'

Emma

Big brother 5 is in the news again. This time because it's makers and broadcasters Channel 4 have been 'rebuked' by Ofcom for allowing the live screening of a fight that occurred in the house to continue to be broadcast.

Apparently Ofcom received a number of complaints that the broadcast should have been cut and that security should have intervened sooner....... some viewers even went so far as to call the police!

I am not entirely sure if I am amused or annoyed by the decision to take to task Channel 4 for their handling of the situation, a little of both I think.

My greatest feeling is of disbelief that viewers should react in this way in the first place. Come on, this incident was broadcast well after the watershed and I cannot believe that anyone who watched Big brother wasn't either expecting or hoping for some confrontation. It was not rocket science to see that it was coming well before it happened and on the scale of Television and film violence it was but a mere spat. It was the behaviour of drunken fools maybe but not the stuff of serious complaint.

Yes it was live and I don't necessarily say I approve whole heartedly of the behavior of the housemates but did those viewers who complained really think that a company the size of this would have no security in place to deal with such circumstances or that Channel 4 would miss out on what, from a viewing statistics point of view, was going to be a winner. Get real.

Some may not agree with the format of the programme or violence on television in general but it never ceases to amaze me how others want to censor our viewing or complain about it's content when after all there is an off button. If you don't like the content of something on TV, turn the damn thing off!! Again, it does not require genius to make this happen.

No one, certainly in the UK, can not be aware that there is a watershed at 21.00 hrs in place or that Channel 4, as one of the forerunners of 'pushing the boundaries' in British broadcasting, may indeed show content that 'some viewers may find offensive'.

I agree with the watershed principle, I agree that some items broadcast are in poor taste, maybe even damaging,I agree that our children should be protected in a responsible way from overt sex and violence on our screens what I do not agree with is small minded people with nothing better to do wasting the time of the police and other authorities over something that by comparison to many, many movies and other broadcasts was insignificant.

Come on guys, you of the Mary Whitehouse brigade, live and let live and if you don't like it don't damn well watch something that by it's very nature is likely to be confrontational.