Wednesday, October 04, 2006

So which of these men did not bother to complain to the BBC? - Leaked email

I have just received this leaked email from a BBC insider, dated today at 11:36am:
"There were 11 comments, 8 of which were along the lines of 'disgraceful and offensive' and 3 of which were along the lines of 'wonderful and marvellous'.I guess that's a pretty average number of phone calls for Panorama - but the comments were fairly detailed, rather than just being 'Unhappy' as usual."
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I complained, about Panorama, and then also about the trailer on the News, apparently the Cardinal did, and Archbishop Nichols did and a few people on this blog say they did but most of the bishops didn't, maybe they though that Vincent Nichols' letter and the Cardinal's letter voiced their views. If that was so then I suppose it is alright for every other Catholic to think the same. Eight of us in the whole country bothered to complain!
What would have happend if it wasn't the Pope but some Grand Mufti or an Ayatola who was being accused of something similar by the BBC, I wonder how many complaints the BBC would receive.
One could substitute another group within society, the gay "community" for erxample, if there was an unjust programme made about them, how many complaints would be made?
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As the BBC reckon one complaint = 100,000, viewers who would have similarly strong opinions, it just shows how important making known our views known is. If we don't then the opionion formers of our society get a way with spreading any lies they want.
I do think the Bishops have a very important responsible to encourage Catholics to come out from under the bed and make their voice heard. In the long run the credibility of the Church is as important as all those social issues that the bishops are continuing encouraging us to become involved in.
It is very sad, maybe Catholics in Britain don't care, if that is so then we are doomed.
But look on the bright side 8 of us did complain, we spoke for everyone else!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are right to draw attention to the spineless attitude of the majority of British Catholics. I would not want to see riots in the streets but I do think that there should have been a more vigorous response to such a biased and ill-informed programme on public service televsion. Perhaps you are correct that people dont care - or do care, but are too idle to do anything about it. If this is true, the whole Church suffers.

Anonymous said...

Dear Father,

Your email and coverage encouraged me to complain. However, I must confess I didn't see the programme! But, to be honest, I don't think I had to as I got the gist from the comments and controversy. I'm sure if I had seen it, I would have been distressed by its content. BBC run anti-Catholic programmes every year or two, though, so it should come as little surprise.

Father John Boyle said...

I also sent a complaining email.

Boeciana said...

Just found that the Panorama website has a transcript of the programme, so will no doubt email once I've read that.

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