Sunday 19 August 2007

Winston Smith, Report for Duty


The Guardian also has this little gem of BBC logic on display (emphasis added):

A source close to next month's new series of Casualty, the long-running BBC1 hospital drama, said that it was to start with a two-part special in which a young Muslim runs into a bus station and blows himself up. Another Muslim is wearing a suicide vest but fails to detonate it; instead he is injured and the vest has to be carefully removed. The source said that senior figures in the drama department supported the idea but were blocked by editorial guideline staff, who oversee the corporation's editorial and ethical standards. The drama staff were overruled because of concerns that the story would perpetuate stereotypes of young Muslims in Britain.

In the substitute story, a double episode to be shown over a weekend, a bomb explodes on a bus after being planted by animal rights militants, leaving the Holby City Hospital's Emergency Department to deal with the bloody aftermath.

So let's get this straight. Doing a story about a Muslim suicide bombing in Britain, which actually has happened, is axed because it "perpetuates stereotypes", but one about an animal rights "militant" planting a bomb on a bus is okay even though that is the one sort of nastiness out of a very long list that animal rights terrorists militants have yet to stoop to.

Good to see the Memory hole is getting a good workout.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well on the bright side, it's not as if they went supercliche and chose Neo-Nazis as their fallback antagonist.

Only Evil Corporate Zombies(TM) earns a greater roll of the eyes in my book.

jayessell said...

I suppose nothing other than a BBC newsreader as the insane bomber would satisfy you, David.


By the way, and somewhat off topic, I may have a cheesey movie for you soon.