Saturday, April 18, 2009

A.A. Gill on children's television

From a recent column of Gill's:

As far as I can tell, which isn’t very far, all children’s television is now policed by committees of single-parent lesbians, nursery assistants, social workers, outreach-policy face communicators and possibly Esther Rantzen.

Everything is made to inculcate simple, short messages about honesty, kindness, inclusivity, cosiness and sensible eating of organic, unprocessed food. The fun is merely there as a coating for the message; the entertainment quality is pretty remedial ...

Kids’ TV now isn’t about good and evil, it’s about constructing the image of a world where there is no evil at all, no sharp edges, nothing but cute lessons without blame, a bland conformity and lots of hugs. And what children learn, I suspect, is nothing at all.

I never watch it myself, but I am sure he is right.

1 comment:

Ed said...

I have not read his full article but this segment underplays the truly shocking eco-totalitarianism that pervades childrens TV.

And it also doesnt point out that the principle offender is the state-owned, poll tax funded BBC.

There are some very good childrens TV programmes but the social and political engineering that is going on via it often makes me very cross.