Beyer spins Ofcom survey to reflect own agenda
Surprised?
Ofcom recently published the results of “An investigation of current attitudes and behaviours towards programme information“. Basically, were people being given enough information about what was coming up on their TV screens to be able to make an informed decision about whether or not to watch it?
The results were pretty unremarkable, with a majority considering that the current information sources were “adequate”. Half of those surveyed expressed “some level of concern” regarding “offensive content” (the older the viewer, the more concerned they were, and females were more likely to take offence), but over half claimed that pre-transmission information helped reduce the chance of offence.
“Massah” John Beyer of Mediawatch-UK, however, does not want information. He wants censorship:
[Ofcom’s] own Communications Market reviews for the last two years show that a majority believes there is too much violence and bad language. The vital question the public is entitled to know is what regulatory measures Ofcom will now bring forward to reduce programme content that they know causes offence and how their Broadcasting Code will reflect these public concerns. Clearly the Code is not sufficiently robust.
Ofcom’s approach is sensible. Give adults enough information to allow them to decide what they want to watch. Beyer, whose main concern is to protect old ladies from accidentally viewing violence and bad language, does not believe you are capable of making such decisions for yourself.
(Thanks to Dan Factor)
I never get violent feelings watching violence on TV just when I read his mindless, fascist control-the-massess rubbish. Ironic really.
I bet Beyer would vote for corporal punishment of kids. All seems to belong to the same mindset, somehow. He’d probably go for the good ol’ Old Testament sport of stoning, too. Mind you, I seem to remember that getting stoned is fun. Er …