TV News Review - Sunday 20th May

Firstly, my apolgies for an omission in yesterday review of Saturdays news. On ITN that day, a feature was shown with a reminder of the Falklands War again, allowing us to see images of warships burning etc etc. It was only the week before last I think, that we had the anniversary on the news. Anyway, this particular feature was due one of the battleships employed in the Falklands being retired.

Both the BBC and ITN News programmes were on at 10, so I only caught up with the BBC where we kicked off with Gordon Brown. He was giving a speech to Labour Party supporters in Coventry but we saw images of anti war demonstrators outside the venue and inside, a lady heckler was carted out by activists, still shouting. We cut over to Iraq for an update and saw an American gentleman advising that he would be "surprised" if there was any change in the relationship with USA and the UK given the change in Prime Minister. Just time to tell us about another soldier killed in Afghanistan.

And over to Gaza for the nightly update. Tonight we were treated to a report from a border town where we saw a Israeli family packing up to move after ten years as they felt it was too dangerous due to rockets being fired over from Palestine. We then went to Palestine where we saw a father clutching his young daughters soft toy which he had recovered from his destroyed home. We were told that his daughter was safe though. We then saw images of fighting and were advised that this was the Palestinians fighting each other. I maybe should not bring this up, but have we not been shown numerous images of the mother of Madeleine McCann also carrying her daughters soft toy recently. Is this coincidental ?

Next feature was Lebanon, it is kicking off there as well.

Next, the missing girl, Madeleine

Then we saw a report on CCTV cameras. A bald senior police officer called Mr. Redhead, has expressed concern about the amount of cameras that we have in the UK. We were advised that small rural communities are installing cameras and that the UK is in danger of turning into an Orwellian society. The presenter kindly reminded us that in an Orwellian society, the citizens were monitored 24 hours a day and that "big brother is watching you" came from the book 1984.

Anway, we have 4.2 million cameras in the UK but, remember, it was these cameras which led to the capture of the July 7th bombers. An image was flashed up of the backpacker bombers. We were told that "most (people) dont mind Big Brothers presence as long as the criminals go away". We were not told where these criminals might go away to.

That was it. The whole concept of an Orwellian Society was based on the novel 1984 , which itself was condensed into Big Brother, which turns into CCTV cameras. So, if you have not read the book or looked at the author, you could be forgiven for thinking that an Orwellian State simply means CCTV, closer monitoring of individuals. And of course, that is acceptable because the criminals will "go away". We already find the concept of "big brother" acceptable given the TV show and, more importantly perhaps in terms of conditioning our thinking, the celebrity version.

Another feature - another 7/7 bomber arrested, possessing an illegal document. Please note, is not me who changes the names of the bombers from Jul7 7th, to 7/7 etc, it is the media who tend to choose a different descriptive name each time they bring up the subject. I have commented on this before.

Then time for sport. Wasps are the rugby champions of Europe. We saw clips of the match, the commentator said the word wasps repeatedly. Then time for fans on the pitch, jubilation, victory.

And more emotion, the androgynous Graham Norton hosting the TV Baftas. Celebrities were there, in abundance. We saw images of them and were reminded of the best shows - Life on Mars, a seventies police drama was highlighted. This drama shows the old gritty, no nonsense type of policing that the UK used to have. (and that perhaps we dont need now, given the CCTV cameras). Other best shows featured on the news included a film about notorious child abducter and killer Ian Brady and the comedy, Royle Family.

Please look at the way this news programme is formatted, it is not me that is sick here. Iraq war, Afghanistan, Gaza (with the child's toy), Lebanon, CCTV/Protection, 7/7 bombers, sport(with all of the war type words, fired, shot, an assault on goal etc etc), finally celebrity and TV, did they really need to focus on the Brady film given the current situation with Madeleine McCann. Also, when we see a lady being carted out of somewhere, still screaming and shouting, we may equate this with madness/deviancy from our perception normal behaviour. And a baldy, bearded policeman called Mr Redhead. You are having a laugh. Or the Royles are.