Heartland

Whatever his private feelings, Eldritch first made his views on the medium of television known in 1983 on Valentine, where the lyric, "cuts men down on television," plays up the notion of TV as a negative influence on a people ready to stand in line to eat one another and die. I wasn't around, I dunno how s**t TV was back then but I do remember thinking when I first heard the lyric something along the lines of like, "oh come on, you've got to at least like Blackadder Goes Forth haven't you? It's right up your alley you should check it out."

Seven years later on Vision Thing we have God on TV trying to hitch a ride and failing, plus the ability to buy nukes on QVC. Evidently his opinions did not change in those years.

Flash forward to now, 2019, and among the lyrics I can make out in "Show Me On the Doll" is "show me stupid on TV." Like damn, you're telling me this guy still hates TV? At the very least he's gotta like Chernobyl, dude wrote a kickass song about that one and everything. And s**t, if he hasn't seen Breaking Bad he really needs to check it out. Like, it's about a guy who looks exactly like him cooking up amphetamines and using his intelligence as a superpower. Right up his alley.

I can see why he'd hate the news, though, especially given that he hates right-wingers. Stations like FOX and whatever equivalent y'all have over in England blast conspiracy s**t to paranoid racists in Von's age group every day, so I'm sure he's been shown enough "stupid on TV" to get to songwriting about it.

I don't really have a point to this, just something I've been thinking about lately.

Not sure if it's television per se but more the seemingly continuous torrent of cr@p it spews at you

Yeah we don't really have an equivalent to FoxTV over here; TV channels shown in the UK have a statutory obligation to be accurate and impartial.

You could say that him still referencing watching tv in songs is an accurate reflection of his life outside the band and his interaction with the world - waiting for the gift of sound and vision

markfiend wrote:Yeah we don't really have an equivalent to FoxTV over here; TV channels shown in the UK have a statutory obligation to be accurate and impartial.

Radio here, in the UK, can use a different approach. I often feel the urge to reach for a baseball bat when I inadvertantly hear that Julia Hartley-Brewer and her odd take on things.

Pista wrote:Not sure if it's television per se but more the seemingly continuous torrent of cr@p it spews at you

Ah, the 's**t-pump' as Viz gleefully refers to it. They're not all bad, my PS4 would be fecking useless without one. Beyond that though, it really is all spew.

markfiend wrote:something about impartiality...

well yes, allegedly so, but that's a pretty thin moral veil to hide behind whilst you're harbouring particularly sinister paedophiles etc.

czuczu wrote:https://youtu.be/OTiryN--n-0

exactly that. And cheers Stu for making me snort coffee.

Planet Dave wrote:

czuczu wrote:https://youtu.be/OTiryN--n-0

exactly that. And cheers Stu for making me snort coffee.

... ... thanks for the head-ups, Dave ... ... the best part is "Open the window" ... ...

markfiend wrote:Yeah we don't really have an equivalent to FoxTV over here; TV channels shown in the UK have a statutory obligation to be accurate and impartial.

How’s that working for you?
Does it enforce a false equivalency, do you think? Compelling balanced coverage and equal air time to opposing views when one or both are psychopathic?

markfiend wrote:Yeah we don't really have an equivalent to FoxTV over here; TV channels shown in the UK have a statutory obligation to be accurate and impartial.

And on a regular basis all sides accuse TV channels of being bias against them!

I saw a thing where BBC news on the Israel/Palestine conflict received 813 complaints of pro-Israel bias and 938 complaints of pro-Palestinian bias. Go figure. (source)

Chaotican wrote:Does it enforce a false equivalency, do you think? Compelling balanced coverage and equal air time to opposing views when one or both are psychopathic?

Well for example, the BBC is continually accused (from the right) of being "climate alarmist" but on the other hand many of those who accept the science feel that they give too much time to outright denialists. So you may have a point. But on the other hand we don't have a TV station that outright panders to fascists.