The Emperor's New Tsar

Dave Barry once said that when an advertiser says one thing, he is really thinking exactly the opposite, such as in "This is not your father's Oldsmobile" means the advertiser really believes "This is your father's Oldsmobile."

I was reminded of this when I read that the BBC has appointed a "diversity tsar" to vet their programming to make sure that it is suffciently multicultural. Mary Fitzpatrick, who has been fingered for the job, said that her duty is,

To meet audiences' expectations in a changing world, we need our programmes to reflect fully and accurately the diversity of the UK population.

Translation: The cast may be of every gender, class, race, colour, creed, sexual orientation, and whatnot, but they must conform to our point of view.

She went on to say that her job is not about,

(Q)uotas or box-ticking, but focusing minds on the fact that audiences are hugely diverse and they rightly expect to see themselves and their life experiences reflected on TV.

Translation: It's about quotas and box-ticking.