INSULTING THE LOWER ORDERS

I don't know Danny Cohen, the whizzkid controller of BBC3, so I have no idea if the amusing Secret Blog of a TV Controller is an accurate spoof or not. However, Media Guardian, ever respectful of the feelings of powerful TV executives, today reports that it is 'nasty', 'spiteful' and 'devoid of wit' and gives Cohen ample opportunity to insist, unconvincingly, that he pays little attention to it (if that's true, he is practically unique in broadcasting). Its interview/profile of Cohen is so sycophantic that you can almost hear the author's desperate attempts to ingratiate himself.

So much so that BBC3's decision to make a programme about single mothers and call it 'Pramface Mansions' passes almost unremarked in the piece, beyond a glancing reference to its 'insulting' title. The term 'pramface' is, of course, a deeply unpleasant sex- and class-based piece of abuse but nowhere in the interview is Cohen called to account for the use of the term.

In Media Guardian land, channel controllers' sensitivities must be protected (after all they might aid one's own progression into TV), but the lower orders are evidently fair game.

Media Guardian and its journalists spend their lives writing admiringly about these people that they've lost any sense of objectivity: they don't realise how craven they've become.

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