The scourge of the prank phone call

[sparkindarkness]

It seems that Jonathon Ross (and was there ever a celebrity with such a high profile with absolutely NOTHING to show for it?) and Russel Brand had the terrible bad taste to ring an ex-Fawlty Towers actor and leave lewd messages about how Russel Brand had had sex with his granddaughter

Now, I agree, this is in extremely poor taste. I can’t imagine how they thought this was acceptable let alone that the editor thought it broadcast material. I can think of few occasions when it is acceptable to mention boffing someone’s granddaughter in crude terms (the fact that he and said granddaughter had formed the beast with 2 backs only makes it more tacky tbh. I mean I’m sure Ms Manners covered “not bragging about your leg over with your lover’s elderly relatives” at least wait until the elderly relatives bring it up first :P)

Right, I think I’ve now covered the issue in all the detail it requires and deserves. So why do the various news sources feel the need to cower in awe in the face of the size of this molehill? Seriously, front page news for days on end? Nearly half the pages of some newspapers are dedicated to this scandal. Is this really the height of importance (and can we have an added “wtf” moment at all of those tabloids pretending moral outrage – please! Talk about people in glass houses!)

I mean, it is beyond ridiculous now. Disaster in the Congo, thousands displaced? Never mind that! There’s been a prank phone call!

Iraq a hellhole with the bodies piling up? Hello, how can you care about that, there’s been a PRANK PHONE CALL!?

Knife crime? KNIFE crime? Who cares about knife crime?! There has been a PRANK PHONE CALL people!!!

Financial crisis, global and national economy in ruins? Where are your priorities people – there has been a tasteless PRANK PHONE CALL! Concentrate on what’s important!

It reached parody level days ago, now it is quite literally beyond a farce

Comments

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

it is, indeed, insane.

[touchstone.livejournal.com]

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when I got to the part of the original news story where it was mentioned that said grand-daughter was part of the dance troupe 'Satan's Sluts'.

[allthepettylies.livejournal.com]

*headdesk*

Oh goddammit.

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Yes, the coverage is ridiculous.

What's also bugging me about the whole affair is the vast majority of the X thousand complaints to the BBC were made long after all this media coverage started. That means the people making them:
a) didn't hear the original broadcast and are complaining purely on the basis of the subsequent media coverage,
b) didn't hear the original broadcast, but heard about it in the press and went looking for it - in other words they went looking for material they knew would offend them (WTF?), or
c) did hear the original broadcast, but weren't offended enough at the time to make a complaint - but have now decided they want to since everyone else is doing it.

All I can say is BAAAAA!

I've never found prank phone calls particularly funny - not when I was ten years old and it was Noel Edmunds doing them on his BBC radio show, and certainly not now.

[phurie-dae.livejournal.com]

Lately I think the news is only capable of covering one topic at a time. They've exhausted their hysterics over the state of the economy and done the presidential elections to death, so now it's all aboard on the Celebrity Scandal!

[touchstone.livejournal.com]

Actually, I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with A or B. Looking at the general case, when a company does something boneheaded that you don't like, it's perfectly fair to send a letter and say 'Don't do that; doing things like that will cause you to lose my business' even if it didn't happen to you. It lets them know that they have customers who care about whatever the thing was. B could just be people wanting to check the facts before they said anything.

[seryan.livejournal.com]

This is the sort of thing that heads up the reasons I no longer have cable television, don't even bother with the free local channels and CBC, haven't watched the evening news since Bosnia in the mid-nineties (when a story about a woman who made her living cleaning other people's dogs' shit took precedence over the genocide), don't actively research the news online, and despite actually working for a media company don't read the paper.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

And maddening, I'm glad it's finally quieting down or being drowned out

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Lo, yes, it does kind of reduce the moral outrage a little :)

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I wonder what the world would be like if people have their priorities in order? A better place I'm sure

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

It's all encompassing and way over the top.

a) is pure stupidity
b) I don't mind so much - researching into a thing before you condemn it isn't a bad idea. I've seen too many idiot protest on hearsay. If all the bigots who voted in the American elections against gay marriage they may have actually cast their vote elsewhere
c) No excuse for this - just BAAAAAA

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I feel myself growing more stupid every time watch the news. This is a bad bad bad thing

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

It's maddening. Human pritorities are so beyond screwed I can't even begin to picture it

[seryan.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Yet those of us who spend our time in basements avoiding others are considered strange?