Ya Bass

So that is another season of anti-war documentaries and programming on Channel 4 and it's sister Channel More4 with Iraq the bloody circus almost finished now. It's about time Channel 4 commissioned some programming acknowledged the other side of the debate as it's been completed airbrushed from their narrative of Iraq and the "war on terror". I remember the height of the anti-globalisation protests a few years back there were a few documentaries supportive of the protestors case (which were always amusingly juxtaposed with the commercial breaks for Mercedes, Pizza Hut, KFC and the rest - Much like how the Independent will run an article on climate change and the damage SUV's are doing to the environment, then over the page with be an advert for a BMW X5 or the Jeep Cherokee). The important thing though was that one the hand Channel 4 were broadcasting work by the likes of Noreena Hertz or the Alt-TV series - but at the same time as this were also showing pieces like the Johan Norberg documentary Globalisation is Good. In other words there was balance. Now I don't expect there to be a 50/50 split in their coverage on the Iraq war and the "war on terror" more generally, but it would be nice for a change for some dissenting viewpoints being aired. Right now, there is nothing being broadcast that offers an alternate viewpoint. The alternative viewpoint may well be inaccurate but the viewer should be allowed tomake these sorts of judgments for themselves, not have it airbrushed it from the media schedules as Channel 4 is doing now.

While on the subject of Channel 4, earlier tonight they ran a trailer for Celebrity Big Brother with the creepiest thing I've seen in years. The clip consisted of George Galloway acting as if he was a cat and then "lapping" milk from some woman's cupped hands (Who I imagine is a celebrity of some sort but I didn't recognise her). Previously I thought Dennis Hoppers role as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet was the creepiest thing I'd ever see on TV but this beat it. There can only be one word for it: EEeeeewwww.

See the video nasty by clicking here. (It's on google video courtesy of dj bleu. Nice soundtrack!)

The Hitch had a brief piece in the Mirror today on the whole sorry spectacle,at home with the tenth rate.

I notice that Galloway has said he'll donate his fee to a charity that helps hard-pressed Palestinians. Has anyone asked lately what happened to poor Mariam, the gravely sick Iraqi girl? The last I read, she was sicker than ever and her family in Baghdad asking to know what had happened to her once-generous "Big Brother".

Contentant George Galloway MP: Why Isn't He At Work?