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Unless they caved in at the last minute the BBC is now showing Jerry Springer - The Opera. As I have no TV I'm not watching it, but Five Live just mentioned that it is running followed by a report about protesters. But even without a TV it was almost impossible to escape the very heated discussions. I was only listening by chance, but the first question on Radio 4's Any Questions was if the BBC should show it or not. Fascinating also the various comments on the Have Your Say page, "Should BBC show Jerry Springer opera?".
I found the contrasting views about withholding licence fees quite interesting:
Exactly when am I going to have the option not to be forced against my will to subscribe to the BBC's extremely expensive pay-TV service? I hope it's soon because as a Christian I have a real problem with any of my cash going to a broadcaster who shows anything like this.
versus
Yes the BBC is right to show Jerry Springer. I have no time for Christian organisations wishing to impose their values on society. In Britain we live in a free and open society and we all, Christian and atheist, pay our licence fee. I will be watching out of curiosity as I have never been tempted to see the show at the theatre but have been assured by friend who have seen it that it is well worth watching. And if I don't like it there is always the OFF button!
I guess once religion and beliefs come into play there just isn't any compromise possible, with the difference that non-believers seem to be more tolerant. At least I haven't heard of 40,000 atheists protesting against Songs of Praise or Sunday Worship.
A lot of this has probably been whipped up by the (tabloid) press, partly by blowing things out of proportion. Which leads me back to my posting about the three minute silence a few days ago. Ron Ferguson in The Herald has similar views about time for reflection and reminds us of the thousands of children dying in Africa every day without being remembered by minutes of silence. Simply because the don't make "sexy" headline news.
That's what I think people should be worked up about, not some irrelevant show being shown on television. But I guess that's asking a bit too much.
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