I don't think the government appreciates the delicious irony of wheeling out spokespeople to comment on, feign outrage about and pontificate about the morals of a television programme they haven't even bothered to watch. Isn't this the very point Chris Morris is satirising? To hear Tessa Jowell you'd think an unspeakable act of brutality had been done to the nations children. If only she could summon up enough moral outrage about children in Iraq and the Balkans that her government is responsible for bombing, murdering and maiming.
The silence is deafening

On of the things that all the commantators have failed to rember is that TV's come with an off switch.

Any one who fiels that they are watching somthing inappropiate only has to flick that switch.

It is quite alarming that the "Culture Secretary", Tessa Jowell, should consider it within her remit to pass judgement on the previous night's television programming; not that (as she admits) she'd actually seen the edition of Brass Eye in question - her copy of the Daily Mail told her exactly what to think. It is yet more worrying that Jowell should be seemingly working under the assumption that the ideal role of the Independent Television Commission is not to provide a careful and considered assessment of any complaints presented before it, taking into account both sides of the argument, before producing a creful and considered judgement; she appears, instead, to think the ITC is there to allow twitching and gibbering Mail readers to censor TV for the rest of us - oh, and provide a convenient peg-up onto the bandwagon for newly-appointed Ministers keen to up their profile.

Although the media furore was somewhat predictable - and probably intended on Morris's part - the fact that the government has chosen to interven so obnoxiously in the matter lifts the situation way beyond that. Governments have always censored programmes, of course: but I believe this is the first time that any Minister has suggested a need to institutionally censor television - via a "strengthened" ITC - outside of war conditions. Nor, I think, has censorship ever been presented as quite such a moral virtue, rather than a regrettable necessity.

So what to do? Tessa Jowell can be found at  tessa.jowell@culture.gsi.gov.uk, but frankly it'll take rather more than a few irked emails to do anything much. Any suggestions for support Chris Morris/anti-censorship activities?

I know, let's all have a rip-roaring laugh at the thousands of 'poor little kiddies' across the globe who are the victims of a sophisticated network of nonces, and lets exploit children in the making of this "spoof," the mother of murdered Sarah Paine can always switch off if she disapproves of her daughter's death being reduced to a joke, as a comical scene is enacted where a child just like hers, is snatched at the roadside, to meet a tragic end. Little girls, Sarah's age sing about how they are not ready for sex, "not today, not tomorrow, maybe the day after that." But hey, it's just "harmless entertainment."

I appreciate good satire, but I found Brass Eye extremely dodgey.

AAAAAaaaaagggghhhhhh! well this is f'ing marvelous is'nt it? Oh sure good ol piss morris is acting on behalf of good ol alternative media,yeah bet he waves a big black flag too...haha all these pricks,nonses and hippies all singing his praises while they 'shout about the system' and clap like baboons(no offence to them)when some shithead state media clown makes a program that 'seems' alternative hehe..? but is part of the system governing your lives,plotting wars,starving others,exploiting anything it can use for its own ends(thats you hippies:)...if you are the people who are fighting to destroy the system whom are commenting to this post and the other ... we're very very very very fucked:( !! wake the fuck up , or get woke the fuck up !!!!!

Well.apart from brasseye being very funny,it was also meant to highlight the exact foolish response it recieved.
Anyone who has watched chris morris before should know what to expect.
Jam was as twisted and funny and it catered for the minorities(for a change).
there was a warning before the prorramme and anyone who could stand to watch the episode all the way through cant really be offended enough to complain.
comedy shows have always featured issues like death,suicide and many more,so why not this one?
peadophilia hasnt increased over the last 2 or three years,its always been the same...it hasnt started happening more often,it is just that the media have seen the $$$$.
a year ago thick wankers who spend their lives having their opinions handed to them daily by newspapers were attacking peadiatricians.
if you dont like it then dont fuckin watch it.
plenty of people took the episode in the context it was meant.
i find offence in some programmes but i wont condem those who watch them nor complain.
the episode is very unlikely to cause anyone to commit an offence against a child.
all it has done is caused a fuss it was supposed to ridicule.
i myself find peadophilia sick and unforgivable.
but this is a fucking tv show.
grow the fuck up.

Comrade Vathek: I think Morris' career began in the late 80's on BBC radio Bristol.
He has made a career of risking his career (he's been sacked from lots of media channels for unauthorised activities on the airwaves).
The Day Today videos are on sale in shops (sorry to sound corporate). Brass Balls and Sickos: if you ain't seen them before, take a look - might improve your opinion of Morris.

I think satire need not be harmless - i don't think that Brass Eye was meant to be harmless: it was intended to disturb.
This evening Channel 4 News was on the attack showing how the supposedly outraged Mail didn't have a problem with printing photos of very young Royals in swimwear in todays edition. I know it's a tremendous generalisation but the tabloids and scandal-mags are in the business of turning people into just objects to sell as entertainment.

Morris has been showing how celebrities can be just puppets and he's used lots of different topics to do so. We could just as easily have seen a moral outcry about the Brass Eye: Drugs edition where various famous people denounced 'Cake' - a new drug which was supplied in a tablet the size of a frisbee. Didn't any of the people who held up the fake tablets and looked into the camera as they warned 'the kids' to 'just say no', think that dealing these tablets in the nightclubs would be really impractical? This was not intended to trivialise the people who have been injured or killed by dodgy drugs - it was about faces for hire. A real life paralell is at www.schnews.org.uk "...Bob Geldof, was flown in on Tony Blair’s private jet to tell people that the G8 was really a force for good and not the un-elected power crazy cabal that everybody knows they are..."

Morris' series Jam, also on Channel 4, received a number of complaints including complaints about use of children using adult language. ITC investigated the complaints and found, not surprisingly, that the adult language and sinister atmosphere had been added in post-production.
(I recall complaints about other sketches featuring actors playing disabled people were upheld: disabled people were actually watching and were actually offended).

probably worth kkeping an eye on the itc as this saga unfolds, at www.itc.org.uk - which also has details of the existing regulations including this:

1.3(i) Warnings in Relation to Programmes Likely to Harm Children

The European Union's Television Without Frontiers Directive 1997 (Article 22.1) requires that broadcasters take 'appropriate measures to ensure that television broadcasts... do not include any programmes which might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors, in particular programmes that involve pornography or gratuitous violence'. The legislation also requires broadcasters to include either acoustic warnings before, or visual symbols throughout, to alert viewers to other programmes, broadcast in unencoded form, that are likely to impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors. Such programmes, even broadcast late at night, must therefore, at a minimum, be preceded by verbal warnings to this effect.
Warnings should be included, for example, where programmes include the strongest acceptable sexual material, violence or themes (such as child abuse or the use of drugs) treated in a way likely to be harmful to children.

'J' your talking shit , so piss the fuck off back to your happy little world where the state does'nt'bend'peoples minds for their own agendas ...u make me fucking puke :(!=-=-=-

the episode is very unlikely to cause anyone to commit an offence against a child the episode is very unlikely to cause anyone to commit an offence against a child the episode is very unlikely to cause anyone to commit an offence against a child the episode is very unlikely to cause anyone to commit an offence against a child the episode is very unlikely to cause anyone to commit an offence against a child the episode is very unlikely to cause anyone to commit an offence against a child the episode is very unlikely to cause anyone to commit an offence against a child the episode is very unlikely to cause anyone to commit an offence against a child ... but it might give some 'fucking bastards' some ideas ?

Firstly a vaguely relevant trivia fact. Remember the front cover of Nirvana's Nevermind. pre=empting any offence the cover could cause Cobain designed stickers for the cover which read 'If you're offended by this, then you must be a closet paedophile.'

I just saw the BBC ten o clock news item on brass eye and it was incredible how even the BBC news told a totally one sided story about the program, siding with the tabloids and mass hysteria sufferers and neglecting to mention what brass eye's producers real aims were. (The brass eye item was followed by an equally biased item on foot and mouth where 'distressed' farmers skirted around questions about the large financial incentives available to anyone who's herd becomes infected)

Peoples' general ignorance about Brass eye is what is worst, the day after the program was aired I encountered numerous people who were unaware that the program was a spoof, while they flicked through their copies of the Sun. The fact that the paper's objections to Brass eye only exist because their readers will be sympathetic to the paper's views and not because they beleive Brass eye is immoral is stunningly obvious, while the irony is that this is the point that the program was trying to make.

I don't recall any of this outrage when C4 brodcast the NAMBLA episode a couple of weeks back.

Note to those who don't watch South Park.

NAMBLA is the North American Man Boy Love Assoc.and the episode featured naked pedeophiles running around a hotel chaceing a young boy and his friends.

You can download all of brass eye including the latest none:

 http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/

I propose that anyone who feel the media response to Brass Eye is unfair. Please contact ITC and state your support for Morris et al.

 publicaffars@itc.org.uk

I personally think if anyone really thinks Morris was laughing at child abuse they must make a stack of planks look like Harvards finest.

:-)

After you have praised Brass Eye, COMPLAIN ABOUT JOWELL. She said yesterday that she wanted a "rapid response" by the ITC to broadcasts which provoke public disquiet. HER COMMENTS HAVE DONE THAT!!!

COMPLAIN! I have.

Lets keep her out of the news.

DO IT!

I heartily agree the Madam Jowell - if thats not how you spell it, i'm not that concerned, is
about as ignorant daily-hate mail reading and anachronistic as you can get, and it only
serves that small band who actually realised what (demi god) Cris Morris was actually
trying to achieve.

He achieved his greatest measure of success sprcifically because he
knew those wind-bag whitehall types would play their hands exactly as they did - just like
those tuppence rent-a-gob "celebrities" who would sell their own mothers for 5 nano
seconds in front of a camera ( - i've just sniffed my keyboard sitting here, and i'm
definately feeling more suggestible) - fucking idiots.

I do feel however, that although Tessa's innane ramblings were necessary to the
ultimate success of the program and giving untold daily mail readers one more peptic
ulcer, (yay) - (it all helps the nhs in the end) the real crime was the way Chris was
LEGALLY allowed to let "THE STARS" make such utter cunts of themselves. Afterall, in
a shiny plastic consumerist society such as ours, our "celebrities" provide a lead - our
kiddies look upto their plastic chins and noses, and into their botoxed eyes and say
"mummy when i grow up, can i be like (read whoever is in steps - thankfully i don't know
their names)...
Comments regarding some comments above -

yes, sarah paine's mother could indeed have switched off the t.v. if she didn't like what she saw, (i doubt she even saw it, but that of course is irrelevant) Ofcourse innocent children are going to be raped and murdered - it has allways happened, AND IT WILL ALLWAYS HAPPEN, unless of course J gets her way and every citizen reports to their nearest police station to be strilized incase they happen to become A MONSTER who does shit like that,
( imagine what the neighbours would think if YOU DIDN'T REPORT but everyone else did YOU WOULDN'T LAST VERY FUCKING LING WOULD YOU? AND THATS EXACTLY WHAT MORRIS WAS TRYING TO GET ACCROSS. JUST BECAUSE A POEADOPHILE'S VICTIMS PARENTS MIGHT BE WATCHING, DOES NOT GIVE THEM THE RIGHT TO CENSOR EVERYONE ELSES - DARE I SAY IT? ENTERTAINEMENT?

PUnK PERSON ABOVE - WHOEVER THE FUCK YOU ARE, NICE 1 - IF YOU ARE QUEER, LET ME KNOW - SERIOUSLY, i'm not joking, get in touch.

L8r people...

AND REMEBER KIDS - CAKE IS A MADE UP DRUG...