New silliness low for media?

simu

Apparently there was some racist confrontation on C4's Big Brother and now it's on the front page of the Irish Times today and also in their editorial and it's also getting coverage on RTÉ's main news bulletins. (I'm not sure if the same coverage has been given in other papers, on the radio etc - maybe some posters here will know). Now, I'm used to seeing random pieces dressed up as news in the media but this seems like the most trivial and pointless thing ever to report on. If people want to watch reality shows, that's fine but why should it be foisted upon others who just want to learn the day's news. Just wondering what other people here think. Do TV shows now set the agenda for news?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

don't mention the war!

mike65

Its the silly season (looks at calander and sees its not August), okay its not the silly season. I think the whole ho-har is rooted in the mire of PC thinking. Jade Goody and her cohorts showed excessive ammounts of stupidity and ignorance but little geniune racism for me. Active racism requires some level of thought. The funniest thing for me was to hear some of the Irish medias coverage which suggested a nose being held as the antics of those English chavs was discussed, its like Rodge and Podge and the Love Ulster riots never happened!

Mike.

The Sweeper

I hate to admit this, but:

I feel sorry for Jade Goody.

Seriously. People need to cop on about using the word 'racism' for everything and anything. It undermines the more serious issues. What happened in that house wasn't racist. It was people reverting to the lowest common denominator.

When you're having a howling bitch fight with someone you don't like, you bring up the thing about them that's most different from you. Maybe they have a big nose. Or their ears stick out. Or they have a funny name. You resort to bringing up what's different in order to offend them. It's not racism. It's just fighting like any other bunch of chavs.

DadaKopf

It's not silly season for the media. It's business as usual. The most rediculous thing being the UK media making Jade's 'racism' headline news over and above three, yes, three massive corruption scandals in the UK which go right to the top.

I wonder what Jonathan Swift would wittily retort?

As for whether it was racism? I think most of it is due to Jade's and Dianielle's inability to express themselves because of their extremely limited vocabulary. But, and it's a big but, they resorted to racist language to express their personal difficulties with Shilpa. They could have said anything else. I think there's a lot packed into what happened in the house. But why the spat ignited the world? I dunno.

InFront

Admittedly not a fan of the programme, and admittedly havent been watching it all, but I did see the alleged racist comments on one show, and I have to agree with MAJD et al. It doesnt sound like racism at all, just everyday bullying. Shilpa Shetty isn't being bullied because she's Indian, it's because she is pretty.

I find it very hard to feel sorry for the Jade girl however. But she has been evicted so maybe she will alter her behaviour.

Wibbs

InFront wrote:

Admittedly not a fan of the programme, and admittedly havent been watching it all, but I did see the alleged racist comments on one show, and I have to agree with MAJD et al. It doesnt sound like racism at all, just everyday bullying. Shilpa Shetty isn't being bullied because she's Indian, it's because she is pretty.

Nail on the head. Add to that the class and educational differences and you can see where the friction may lie.

I find it very hard to feel sorry for the Jade girl however. But she has been evicted so maybe she will alter her behaviour.

You're the hopeful sort.

panda100

InFront wrote:

Admittedly not a fan of the programme, and admittedly havent been watching it all, but I did see the alleged racist comments on one show, and I have to agree with MAJD et al. It doesnt sound like racism at all, just everyday bullying. Shilpa Shetty isn't being bullied because she's Indian, it's because she is pretty.

.

I dont think so,cos why wouldnt they bully Danielle,the former miss England if there bullying was based on looks and not race?

I was in London at the time that the Big brother story escalated and it was a very worthy,topical and intresting news story. The amount of asians living in London and England is phenomenal,So seeing interactions between two cultures on a tv programme really shows what goes on in everyday life over in London.
Its easy to think of the newstory as ridiculous over here in Ireland because we do not have a overwhelmingly large asian population.

InFront

panda100 wrote:

I dont think so,cos why wouldnt they bully Danielle,the former miss England if there bullying was based on looks and not race?

Sorry don't know who Danielle is, I don't know why that was. If you take it that there is a gril who is prettier than Shilpa Shetty in the house, then perhaps other forces were at play along with looks. I'm just saying it didn't look like racism from what I saw of it, but I am not going to pretend to be an expert on it.

The amount of asians living in London and England is phenomenal,So seeing interactions between two cultures on a tv programme really shows what goes on in everyday life over in London.

Are you saying there is a large Asian-White divide in London? I couldn't disagree with you more. Some people (on both sides) will always hold prejudices against the other, but to no real extent does it seem to be a widespread problem in the UK.

In relation to the demographic contrasts, I don't see why Ireland not having a large Asian population would alter someone's opinion on what consititutes racism.

Racism is a very serious issue that certainly does need attention, and it is a problem Irish society is not immune from. As other posters have said, it wouold be a bad idea to undermine the very real racism that goes on by throwing this label around when it isn't appropriate.

If a black guy or an Asian gets put in hospital after being targeted because of his colour or his accent - and that is racism - it would not make the same headlines as this has.
Snide remarks were made towards Shilpa Shetty, and the people in question did use her Indian background against her, that is ignorant behaviour. But the question is: was that because she is pretty or intelligent, or is it because she is Indian?

daiixi

I think they bullied Shilpa because they don't like her. You know, sometimes people decide they don't like someone because, hey, they just don't like them! I think this is one of those cases.

RaiseTheBlinds

there was nothing rascist in there to be honest,.... just a bunch of girls doing what they do best - bitching.
it happens in every group of friends i know. bitch behind the back and nice to their faces !!!

if they were to dislike a tall person,..they would call them a lanky xxxx probably,..... not because they have a thing against tall people.

i dont feel sorry for any of them to be honest,.... the media created and destroyed them as they pleased.

i thought the funniest thing i heard was that Jade was seeking help for her rascism !!!! - betty ford here we go.

Gurgle

daiixi wrote:

I think they bullied Shilpa because they don't like her. You know, sometimes people decide they don't like someone because, hey, they just don't like them! I think this is one of those cases.

She's well educated, rich, pretty and successful. They're not, thats why they didn't like her.

The problem is with how they bullied her. If they called her a stuck-up snob who thinks her sh1t doesn't stink, there would have been no mention of it beyond what CBB and similar crap usually achieves.

Comments like 'Shilpa Shopalopidoo' and 'Fcuk off home' are blantantly racist. Making those comments when they know the cameras are rolling is just plain stupid, they may as well have said it at a press conference.

daiixi

Gurgle wrote:

Comments like 'Shilpa Shopalopidoo' and 'Fcuk off home' are blantantly racist. Making those comments when they know the cameras are rolling is just plain stupid, they may as well have said it at a press conference.

Well I, like a million others and Shilpa herself last night, don't think those comments are blatantly racist. If you told me to "fcuck off home" I wouldn't consider you to be racist because of it, I'd just think you need to come up with a better argument/insult. People need to stop labelling everything and also stop being so ruddy sensitive.

simu

There's a Big Brother forum somewhere on boards, ya know...

Gurgle

daiixi wrote:

If you told me to "fcuck off home" I wouldn't consider you to be racist because of it.

If you were a nigerian in Dublin and I told you to "fcuck off home", you would assume I was talking about your apartment in phibsboro?