This shows you just how far the former radical channel has sunk. It was founded to present genuinely alternative programming, with its head, Jeremy Isaacs, enthusing about ‘miner’s oral history’, as well as shows, like the Mahabharata, the great Hindu epic, aimed at ethnic minorities. And the channel duly delivered. Admittedly, it also carried shows like ‘Right Talk’, catering for Tories, but there was genuinely radical and alternative programming, often of a very high quality. Then it was re-invented in the 1990s as another commercial channel pretty much like the other terrestrial channels. Now it has gone one step further, and produced a rabid piece of demonization that has provoked its viewers into a violent hatred of the poor and jobless in general. Dear God! When faced with this, you really do long for a return to some of the old Reithian values.
(not satire!)
Channel 4 executives should be proud of themselves.
Their attempt to stereotype and demonise all of Britain’s 2.49 million unemployed by focussing on just 6 carefully chosen people and showing them in the worst possible light in their programme Benefits Street last night was so successful that Twitter exploded with threats of violence and even death against the participants:
The producers of the programme meanwhile defended it is a ‘sympathetic, humane and objective portrayal’ of those struggling to cope with austerity.
Not much sympathy, humanity or objectivity on display on Twitter however.
Isn’t there a law against this kind of incitement to violence in the UK?
If so, if any police officer would like to take this further, I’ve kept the names and IDs of the people responsible for the above (and more below) threatening tweets and I would be more than happy to help you with your…
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