Mediawatch-UK Watch

Pensioner Kelly Fox causes a minor stir on Britain's Got Talent with her song Kiss My Ass.

Mediawatch-UK director Vivienne Pattison has asked David Cameron's Mary Whitehouse, Claire Perry MP, to investigate supposedly sexualised content on pre-watershed shows like Britain's Got Talent. Pattison whinged:

The ratings are falling and ITV is just pulling out the stops. First we had the lap dancer Keri Graham and now this granny. It is inappropriate. BGT is going all out to shock and Ofcom is simply underregulating the show.

In 2010, Ofcom said Rihanna's dancing on The X Factor had reached the 'limits of acceptability'. It must be past that by now. As a result, Ofcom is trying to redefine family viewing.

The Britain's Got Talent judges granted Fox a thumbs up for another appearance.

BBC bosses are braced for pre-prepared 'outrage' over sadistic sex scenes to be shown 5 minutes after tonight's 9pm watershed. David Tennant will be seen raping his wife in a 70-second scene in The Politician's Husband.

Vivienne Pattison, director of pressure group MediaWatch-UK, slated the decision to show adult material immediately after the 9pm divide. She said:

The Politician's Husband will be following on from snooker. Snooker to sadistic sex is quite an extreme leap and care should be taken to avoid putting the most 'challenging' material immediately after 9pm.

And Katie Russell, of the organisation Rape Crisis, insisted viewers should be warned of the sexually violent nature of the show before they watch it. She said:

It's important that any programme planning to screen such scenes carries clear and repeated warnings to avoid triggering flashbacks or distressing and re-traumatising sexual violence survivors.

A BBC spokesman explained:

This scene goes to the heart of the emotional story for the characters. It establishes that their sex lives are integral to the narrative, and while some viewers may find these scenes strong, they reflect the central themes of power and betrayal which impact on their political marriage.

It will air in a post-watershed slot and there will be a warning prior to broadcast that the drama contains scenes of sexual violence and some strong language from the start.

lMediawatch-UK have just modernised their website.

The site now has a very American sounding strapline: for family values in the media

The Daily Mail enjoyed Britain's Got Talent immensely and had a good rummage around in their Scrabble bag of random hype words:

Britain's Got Talent has been hit by a 'huge backlash' [= a few tweets] from viewers after broadcasting a performance from an 11-year-old schoolgirl singing a song about a one night stand, and a 'highly sexualised' [=marginally sexy] lapdancing performance - all before the 9pm watershed.

The first episode of this year's ITV talent contest, which was shown at 7pm on Saturday night and watched by more than 13 million people, was branded totally unsuitable [= carefully edited for a family audience] by 'outraged parents' [= Daily Mail hacks].

Contestant Keri Graham, whose performance saw her stripping down to her 'underwear' [=shorts], writhing 'semi-naked' [=modestly costumed] on a chair and 'gyrating on Simon Cowell' [= put a leg over his shoulder], is a professional stripper.

A second act featured 11-year-old Arixsander Libantino performing a rendition of Jennifer Hudson song One Night Only , which features the lyrics:

You've got one night only,
that's all you have to spare,
let's not pretend to care,
come on, big baby,
come on,
we only have 'til dawn.

The Daily Mail then dragged up half a dozen trivial tweets to justify the 'huge backlash'.

Vivienne Pattison, director of Mediawatch UK said:

Having an 11-year-old girl sing an adult song like this is simply sexualising children. It's incredibly damaging because this show is marketed at primary school children.

ITV appear to have completely ignored the Ofcom guidelines - I don't even know why they put the guidelines out. This kind of thing is not what families want to see.

We are sleepwalking into a situation where pornography is the norm.

A spokesman for ITV said :

Mindful of our family audience, the performance was carefully edited to ensure it was suitably inexplicit.

Ofcom said that it was too early to tell if they had received any complaints from the public.

Update: Independent takes up the Twitter Trawl

16th April 2013. See article from mediasnoops2.wordpress.com

Dan reports that the Independent is trawling Twitter for complaints about the show. It seems it's not just the Daily Mail and right-wing tabloids which do this.

You would think The Independent would have more sense. Obviously not.

See Britain's Got Talent draws complaints over lap dance and child singing about one-night stand from independent.co.uk