Big Brother: The Daily Mail’s Racism Row
BIG Brother 9 Watch: Anorak’s looks at Big Brother news in the media…
BIG Brother is upon us and the Mail screams from its front page: “C4 PAID CHIEF OVER SHILPA ROW.”
The Mail would never comment on the actual show – why bother when it has already has such a rich stock of pictures of drunken young women in short skirts to shock and appal its readers with?
The paper introduces readers to Trevor Phillips, “the Government’s equality chief, who is responsible for making businesses and public bodies obey anti-discrimination laws, was paid by Channel 4 for giving advice following the Big Brother racism scandal.”
Obey.
Trevor Phillips, the £110,000-a-year chairman of Labour’s new Equality and Human Rights Commission ‘super quango’ was hired by the TV company after the furore over the treatment of Indian actress Shilpa Shetty.
The Mail says this might be conflict of interest, something so important that it replaces news of bins on the Mail’s front pages. And causes it to feature pictures of Jade Goody ‘The Hoody’ and recall how “her then boyfriend Jack Tweedy, glamour model Danielle Lloyd and former S Club 7 singer Jo O’Meara were at the centre of the allegations.”
Goody referred to Shetty as “poppadom” and Ms Lloyd was heard telling the Bollywood star she should just “go home”, adding “She can’t even speak English properly.”
But this is not the story. The Mail would not lower itself to comment on Big Brother. The story is that a man expert in race relations was hired by a beleaguered broadcaster to help it repair damage after is broadcast organised bigotry as entertainment…
Posted: 8th, June 2008 | In: Tabloids, TV & Radio Comments (6) | TrackBack | Permalink
