Big Brother Breaking News: Has everybody gone nuts?

Has everyone gone mad? Have we totally lost the plot?

Big Brother is just the most boring, stupid, trivial, non-event. It is as interesting as watching CCTV pictures of people buying yoghurt in Tesco.

Yesterday, two women had an argument about a stock cube. This was Breaking News on Sky. The Prime Minister commented. Gordon Brown read out a statement.

Keith Vaz has put down an early day motion. Hasn't he got anything better to do? If he's got time on his hands he could spend it answering the remaining questions about his business affairs put to him by the Parliamentary standards watchdog. It is not surprising that he'd rather talk about light entertainment.

Everyone in Big Brother is being paid to be there. Everyone who goes on it knows the score. There are no victims.

Now get back to work.

Comments

[Tom]

"Keith Vaz... Hasn't he got anything better to do? "

I think you know the answer to that question.

[John Hirst]

No, not everybody, old chap, has gone nuts. It might be argued that this tripe is why the TV licence fee cannot be justified. When the goings on in this unnatural environment become the lead story on BBC news, and the trial of suspected terrorists takes second place, should we not be asking why the Director of the BBC has not offered his resignation?

[Bill]

So sad to see further evidence of the U.K. losing its' once legendary grip on reality (pardon my use of the word.)Here in the U.S. we expect bad treatment of the players as an essential element of any
such low-life-locked-up-together drama.

[sarmila bhal]

it is amazing how some people define racist in the uk? so it is ok to be racist behind someones back but in front of them? thats what jade is doing and her followers. shilpa does not know that but i bet if she knows what jade been saying about her she too will say it is racist. does not mean you enter a game means you deserve to be bullyied and someone to be racist even though you play game voluntarily as you would not say the same if you get racist remark at work as you went for the job voluntarily not by force???

[soma victim]

Read "Are We Amusing Ourselves To Death" by Neil Postman, and be VERY AFRAID!

[Chee]

Er, no, not everyone has gone mad. Only oversensitive Brits and Indians. (Disclaimer: Yes, I do think racism is bad. However, I couldnt care less about CBB)

[dizzy]

Danny, also amusing, as I just posted on my blog, is that Livingstone put out a statement showing he had not actually watched it but still condemned it. Remeber Brasseye?

http://dizzythinks.blogspot.com/2007/01/livingstone-condems-big-brother-whilst.html

[Madeline]

Finkelstein, if you'd ever been a victim of this kind of treatment (racist or otherwise) you would understand the issue. Sadly, you just don't get it.

[Nadia]

Yes, it would seem everyone has gone mad. It made my blood boil last night when the headline on most radio news reports, television news reports and newspaper headlines was about CBB. Among other more worthy news stories, people died yesterday in the worst storms Britain has seen in ages and terrorists are on trial. Why do we care so much that someone is being bullied on reality television? How can this nation condemn those girls when we made those idiots celebrities in the first place?

[Vinay Mehra]

I have never watched this program and I agree that I would rather watch paint dry but it is current affairs, now. I am always interested in current affairs. Now I even know who is Jade Goody and who was the last Miss U.K. It is more than a low brow program now. Britain has been accused of racism and we have to correct that perception. There are billions of pounds of contracts associated.

[Kevin Miller]

I have only seen the news reports of this programme but I am full of admiration for Jane Goody's agent. Anyone who can make a commercial success of this profoundly unattractive half-wit has clearly mastered the dark arts! Whether they will be able to work their magic on her after this second appearance on BB I doubt. Why would any business or consumer wish to be associated with such a foul mouthed nasty piece of work?

[Marc]

OK tell those radio stations all round the country to stop the thousands of people from calling. Stop those people who normally listen to non stop music stations all the time who have never debated anything in their lives to go back to their ipods. Politicians should refuse to respond to questions. Everyone just stop it so that the columnists and the bloggers can dictate the agenda amongst themselves again. After all we dont want to bore them do we.

[Peter Briffa]

Have you ever watched CCTV pictures of people buying yoghurt in Tesco?

Fascinating.

I take it you'll be telling this lot to go back to work too, then

http://timesonline.typepad.com/big_brother

[Michael Quinn]

I think Caitlin Morans lead article in Times2 was dreadfully inaccurate. She wrote: "As final proof that this is all simple, healthy bitch-fighting rather than anything more poisonous and pernicious" i.e racist ", it is pointed out that Jade Goody is herself half black."
She seeems to have mistaken what racism actually is. It is not just being prejudice against someone who's skin colour is darker than them, it is being prejudice against a race of people (yes, more often than not this is defined by skin colour). Is Caitlin suggesting that an African person can never be racist against someone from India despite clearly being a different race of people. This stupid and inocorrect remark only confuses matters more in defining racsim.

[Elizabeth Young.]

It's nothing to do with racism or bullying. It is entirely a consequence of intimidation. They feel intimidated. They think she thinks she is perfect, because they themselves subconsciously think she is more perfect than they are. So they think she must know it, and if she knows it, then she thinks less of them. So, it is their business to bring her down. The 'racist bullying' is their weapon of choice, because they feel she is susceptible to it. She to them, is everything they are not, and they know it consciously. They feel inferior, so they act inferior. They cling together; attacking her in a bid to bring her to their level, so they can feel comfortable being themselves. Isn't that how it is in today's society?

[MLA]

Michael Quinn, I think Caitlin Moran in fact makes the same point as you. What Caitlin was actually saying was that others (not her) had put forward the argument that Jade cannot be a racist as she is mixed-rate herself. Caitlin then has this to say about this argument:

"This, however, ignores the fact that racism, like any prejudice, works like a dimmer switch of fear, ignorance and insensitivity, with most people placed somewhere on the continuum. Racism has a wide span, from discomfort on finding yourself alone on a bus with a black hoody to going the whole hog and naming your child “Oswald Mosley Jnr”. And it is something of which black, Asian and mixed-race people are just as capable as whites, making Goody’s ethnicity wholly inconsequential."

[Geoff]

Entirely disappointing comment, Daniel. The BB story has such impact because scenes of racism and bullying are all too common place across all ages and classes. If you and yours have escaped entirely, you must consider yourself lucky.

Granted, the rush to condemn Channel 4 is crazy, as is the fact that political involvement has only been in the form of half assed statements. Very few commentators have latched onto the fact that to broadcast these actions is far from condoning them, and even fewer have seized the opportunity to encourage people to stand up to this behaviour when they encourage it in the school or the workplace.

This is an issue because it, sadly, affects countless people. A real opportunity for leadership has been squandered.

Obviously, there will be those who have escaped the effects and enjoy the show and even discuss it afterwards. As they should. 3 days respite from doomsday politics is long overdue and voyeurism is a pleasure rarely enjoyed.

As for “they have all been paid, there are no victims here” surely a non-sequitor. Examine your cognitive bias! Yes, Jade has every right to her ignorance and her anger, but their impact will be no less real for Shilpa having been paid. The very idea that cash can compensate for emotional damage is shaky at best.

And surely commenting on the lunacy of the commentary is just fanning the flames further still.

[John]

I have never watched the show, but suggest it is time to follow the lead of Australia and have it thrown out in the trash where it belongs. The sad thing is that young impressionable people (i.e. children) watch these shows and believe it is normal to behave like these moronic half-wits.

[BERAT]

hi there.

Jade is going mad and shouldn't behave like this. take her off the show, she is an evil.

[David Marusza]

I can see the sense that something was mde of supposedly racist behaviour on a much watched television channel, though arguably the fuss might have been cicrcumvented had Channel four had the ounce of wit needed to make an unequivocal statement of opposition to such ignorance and prejudice. That the time of the supposedly over-burdened Commons was wasted, and that the Chancellor of the Exchequer felt the need to comment, does seem to strain the margins of credulity. Would not a short and simple written statement by the Brisitish embassy to India have seemed more like the behaviour of a developed democracy?

[michele]

It is important because of the number of people who watch it and the imppressionable nature of most of them. If we openly tolerate racism and bullying then everyone suffers as it permeates through to everyday life and gets worse. The media has a responsibility - just because you are smart enough not to be affected by this doen't mean everyone else is impervious. You have made it quite clear that you are a superior being who never watches 'common tv' and that most of the folk commenting here belong with you in that hallowed category. Yes you are cleverer than everyone else and you have a grip on true reality to be gazed at in awe and wonder and envied by all right thinking people. In the meantime the rest of us want this toxic rubbish of a program stopped before it pollutes what is left of the collective consciousness. If that is nuts then roast me, salt me and seal me up with the allergy warnings.

[A J Hughes]

You can't polish a turd as they say, but you can make money out of one!

Jade Goody epitomizes the nation’s insatiable appetite for shit TV and people who talk it.

Is this what the UK is today? Asks Shilpa. Well yes actually it is. But worse than that, maybe, is the fact that ‘this’ is what the UK considers a celebrity. This fat repugnant pig-like troll who complains about someone else’s English (Their second language) when she can’t even muster the basic rudiments of a coherent conversation herself.

Probably the majority of the countries millions of little Jade name sakes, up and down our fair land, are sitting up way past their bed times with the parent/s who proudly named them after and were inspired by the wit and wisdom of our first experience of Jade, and ‘booing’ in unison every time Shilpa appears.

The inspired parents are probably busy complaining about the way that Shilpa talks ‘down’ to Jade! Because as we all know using words that are ‘big’, ‘Cleva’ and hard to understand means that you are talking down!

As Jades boyfriend Jerk or what ever HIS name is, pointed out “She said we need elecrution lessons, or whatever it was, don’t even know what it means”!

So a nationwide debate starts, sides are drawn and the PM has to issue a statement to calm the angered population of two continents. Wow – that’s entertainment!

But what sort? Is BB an experiment in social- anthropological - psycho – analytical behavior? I don’t think so. It’s cheap, low maintenance, low budget TV with CCTV production values that has become expensive. The stakes are high for investors and channel 4. Are they worried? – No! Just imagine the target audience of the Asian population who will now text at a premium rate to vote Miss Piggie out! Think of the millions of pounds in revenue generated and think of the cash that will pour into agent’s pockets as a result of the OXO-Gate (As I like to call it) scandal and the ‘news’ and media coverage that will ensue.

Is this what the UK is today – very much so.

[Madhu]

I think Big Brother has made a serious MISTAKE ! There is no reason or justification in the entire world which can be good enough for any uncultured disgusting, paranoid and illiterate woman to make comments as have been made by the participants. I fully agree that cultural differences exist and are not always accepted, however such maniacal behavior can very easily provoke violence in many parts of the world.... if a white skinned brit really think they have potential ... let's have them come to India for just one week .... and then let justice prevail ..

[Hannah Parker]

Why does Britain celebrate stupidity?
We give more publicity to nonsensical loudmouthed chumps than anyone else.

[Frank Upton]

Dizzy - you can be 100% certain that a person called 'Daniel Finkelstein' has been a victim of this kind of treatment, perhaps in a snide and subtle way, but all the worse for that.

For my part, I am now 99% certain that Celebrity Big Brother is scripted. The ratings had fallen behind a show that was on BBC at the same time about growing potatoes. They had to do something. How likely is it that anyone, however thick, really cannot pronounce 'Shilpa'?

[Val Bissland]

Big Brother is so exploitative. Jade may be rich through her previous Big Brother fame but she is an emotionally damaged person. Most of us have heard of emotional intelligence – the ability to empathise and tune in to other people’s feelings. If I had been exposed in my formative years to the tender ministrations of Jade’s mother I doubt if I would be the reasonably well-balanced person I hope I am today, although my parents were far from perfect human beings.
I don’t condone Jade’s behaviour – I can’t bear to watch her bully, shout and swear, backed by her buddies – it’s depressing – it’s the worst of human nature. It’s depressing that thousands of years of human brain development can produce individuals so bereft of empathy and tolerance. And yet it is a fact that our primitive ‘fight or flight’ roots are just below the surface. And I suppose it’s human to be gripped when we see aggression given full rein, but it’s not an edifying spectacle.
I hope that the psychologists and counsellors do more that debrief Jade. She needs a sustained course of counselling paid for by the show’s producers. Doesn’t she have two children to bring up? Then at least some good might emerge from this public debacle of ignorance and hurt on our TV screens.

[Kong Kek Kuat]

My my... [talking to myself] look at all these people talking about... what's the name of that TV show? "That layman's show."

[Patrick Legris]

Madness for sure!

After spending the late 1980s and the entire decade of the 90s enjoying such brilliant offerings as "Inspector Morse", I find it truly depressing to find British television producers following the "reality tripe" of American television.

Bring back "Inspector Lewis"!

[Rodney]

The sad thing about this CBB row is that it should have attracted so much media attention. I have never watched this rubbish and it is a dismal commentry on our society today that it has such a following. The Indian lady lowered herself by taking part, but I expect it was the money.

[singhap]

Wow!! Is it true what I watched jsut now?
Jade, only after being reminded by BB that she used the word 'poppadom' realised that she 'might' have blown away her mega-million pound endorsements and suddenly she has become a 'reformed' one who has seen the light!!
Come on! IF BB had 'not' told her about what she has been saying, there is NO way that this half-wit dumb person, would have realised that her brain has no cells in it.

[Jez Walton]

"It's all pantomime."

[docmak]

This is for Jade and her gang ---

Do's and Don'ts -

1)Learn to eat with your fingers. About half the world’s population does this. Hygienically.

2)Check out Shilpa Shetty’s house. It is located in Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri,Mumbai and no, that’s not a slum.

2)Gandhi had said western civilisation was a good idea. Try not to prove him wrong.

3)Buy a world map. You will find India and Pakistan are two different countries. And the word is Pakistani, not Paki.

(It’s a bit like we calling you a frog. But we will not do this because we have perfectly good relations with France)

[Marco]

I Definitely agree with Mr Finkelstein. There are more important things happening out here, in the "real reality".
And then you Brits can't think to stop any chav of the country from saying racist things: you haven't got enough policemen...