I guess what prompted this entry (other than a perpetually burning desire to create a large enough fan base from the wayward travellers who venture into this blog, with which I might be able to launch a full scale invasion on the Eighth Dimension) was the advertisement for "Border Patrol" which is running at the moment.
It was after enjoying some of Seven's Olympic Coverage - which is making its own humble contribution to the problem through the careful selection of presenters such as Andrew Daddo who is (after his great success hosting Nine's terrible "The One"), attempting to claw back his dignity with the morning Olympic program "Yum Cha". Apart from the interesting choice of name:
Producer: We need something that reminds our viewers of the Chinese location...
Suggester #1: What about "China Uncensored"?
Suggester #2: Or "Beijing Breakfast Buddies"?
Producer: No, no. We need something a bit more subtle...
Suggester #1: "Ying and Yang with-"
Suggester #3: What about that meal that Chinese people have...umm...whats it called?
Producer: Ah, yes! Hotpot!
Suggester #2: No, I thought that was Mongolians....its.....YUM CHA!
Producer: That's it. Excellent. Yum Cha. It has a ring to it. It's different without being confrontational. Throw in some gamelan music to accompany the Chinese feel, and we're set.
Music Director: The gamelan is Indonesian...
And then Daddo opens the show with "With the weather we've been having, you'd reckon Beijing was Chinese for puddles". BUT I DIGRESS.
The ad for "Border Patrol" was shaping it up to be one exciting season return, picking up from the cliffhanger where an angry and confused man was shouting at a drug donkey from Asia...
We're promised more excitement from its host Grant Bowler (that's right, the man from The Mole that disappeared for a while), who hints that there will be less blurred faces, more naming and shaming (if we can even pronounce their names, lolololololol).
They also use the charming language technique of "its a battle between us" *close up of border officer* and "them" *close up of Asian*. The funniest part is that it can actually be somewhat addictive TV. The ratings are proof of that. Mum is even partial to the odd episode - it is easy to get caught up in the whole "He's got drugs inside him? Wow, I really wanna see how they - oh, we have to wait over an ad break and sit through someone else on an illegal visa?..well, ok."
There is also all that nationalistic television programs such as Today Tonight and A Current Affair have contributed to this, through skewed reports on "Australian values at risk" and other such rubbish which deserves equal measures of boo and hiss. Channel Seven news does it sometimes, even if just in the way they will single out the attacker "of a Middle Eastern" or "Asian" background, yet fail to single out the "white Australian" when they are involved. This is how we end up with people, people I know, who will frown darkly at the mention of Islam and mutter "I'm not sure about all those Muslim people with their glory suicide bombers". Its just the "vibe" they get from so much of the media, and while they can't point to specific examples, the sentiments remain, towards whole communities. THIS CAUSES HATE, WHICH IS BAD.
Ok, so there we go. Lesson of the day: keep your wits about you whenever you watch TV. No TV news is "trustworthy" or should be put beyond close scrutiny. And accept my apology - I wasn't going to have another TV related rant...but there you go. I shall make a better attempt at self control next time, let us hope.
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