Nathalie Rothschild
| 1 | The idea that TV should always be true-to-life, and transparent about its | |
| processes of script-writing, direction and editing, defeats the purpose of | ||
| entertainment. After all, viewers tune in to shows like Born Survivor and | ||
| Gordon Ramsay’s F Word for some fun and escapism, not for The Truth or for | ||
| lessons in TV production. | ||
| 2 | And yet, over the past month, a series of revelations that these and other popular | |
| shows have been ‘faked’ has caused a media storm. Production companies have | ||
| written remorseful letters; media regulators have dished out huge fines against | ||
| TV fakers; and broadcasters have issued on-air apologies for misleading the | ||
| public. The integrity of the BBC, RDF Media, Channel 4 and the Discovery | ||
| Channel has been questioned after each admitted to ‘faulty editing’ and ‘faking | ||
| scenes’ in recent weeks. Bear Grylls – star of the Man vs Wild survival show – | ||
| stayed in a motel in Hawaii when he was meant to be struggling to survive alone | ||
| on a desert island. Foulmouthed celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay didn’t really | ||
| spear a sea bass off the Devon coast before grilling it with saffron and fennel | ||
| over an open fire. | ||
| 3 | & Entertainment is supposed to be a little bit fake; that is its nature. The real | |
| problem occurs when creative liberties are taken in serious TV programming, | ||
| such as news coverage. The move over the past decade towards emotionalised, | ||
| victim-oriented stories in the news has come at the cost of rigid investigative | ||
| journalism and clear-eyed reporting. | ||
| 4 | Earlier this year, for instance, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology | |
| Authority (HFEA) launched a police-assisted raid on Dr Mohamed Taranissi’s | ||
| IVF clinics in London, together with a BBC Panorama programme in which | ||
| undercover journalists posed as infertile women. This piece of policing TV was | ||
| concocted in a less than upfront and honest fashion. When authorities cooperate | ||
| with journalists in order to conduct ‘trials by television’, it is absolutely valid, | ||
| even necessary, to raise concerns about the possibility of this being ‘faked TV’. | ||
| [id:58868]many of the commentators who have been outraged by Ramsay’s dodgy | ||
| fishing trip ignored the HFEA/Panorama witch-hunt of Dr Taranissi. | ||
| 5 | TV entertainment is not real, and nor should it be. Whether or not celebrity | |
| chefs catch fish and survival freaks sleep in jungles is pretty irrelevant, so long | ||
| as the show we end up watching is entertaining. But when sensationalism, | ||
| emotionalism and a disregard for analysis and facts replace serious and objective | ||
| news reporting, then, yes, we should [id:58869]. |