In an almost Apocalypse Nowian turn of events, the directors of Channel Ten have decided that during the school holidays, it would be best if Jerry Springer were taken off the air. This happens every school holiday, so it is not a one-off thing.
It seems that Springer might be a little too much for the legions of innocent school kids reared on television.
However, in their infinite wisdom they've replaced it with Ripley's Believe It or Not. This means that instead of watching bickering incestuous rednecks you can now watch people eating leeches, guys getting cannon balls shot into their stomachs and a guy with a knife in his head that survived the operation (with x-rays and all).
While the existence of both shows doesn't concern me in the slightest, it would seem that one is as disturbing as the other.
I don't know what is going on in television land but it seems that the people who make these decisions have been suckling on the bosom of hypocrisy and possibly on the teat of double standards.
If they are, in fact, replacing one with the other in order to spare young minds, then they've got a scenario that would have done the aforementioned movie proud.
[At this point, I suspect that I should be talking about the movie and showing how it relates to my news post. To be honest, I have no idea as to how to word it and clearly a task like that is for wiser heads than mine. I suggest you either watch it or watch Apocalypse Now Redux.]
You cannot censor the cursing in a movie and then show footage of a man blowing his brains out on the news.
Written on Friday, 4 October 2002