The purchase of Channel 5 by Richard Desmond of TVX fame resulted in a couple of parliamentary questions to the Culture, Media and Sport minister.

John Whittingdale (Maldon, Conservative):

Does the Secretary of State agree that the relatively low price for which Richard Desmond has acquired Channel 5 is a further indication of the continuing difficulties affecting all traditional television companies, and that it also shows that successful companies are likely to have to operate across several different media in future? Given that, does he have any plans to look again at the current rules that govern cross-media ownership and cross-promotion?

Jeremy Hunt (Secretary of State, Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport; South West Surrey, Conservative)

I thank my hon. Friend for a thoughtful question, as ever, on the topic. He is absolutely right that media companies of the future will have to operate on different platforms. That is why one of my first decisions was to accept a recommendation by Ofcom to remove the regulations on cross-media ownership locally to allow local media operators to develop new business models that let them take product from newspapers to radio to TV to iPods to iPads and so on.

We do not currently have any plans to relax the rules on cross-promotion. Indeed, the regulations on taste, decency and political impartiality on Five remain extremely tight, but we are aware of the need to lighten regulations in general because, if we are to have a competitive broadcasting sector, we must have one in which independent players can also make a profit.

Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield, Labour)

The Secretary of State knows that Richard Desmond and Rupert Murdoch have huge pornography empires. Does he share my concern that children have increasing access to pornography on television? What can he do about it? It is a curse, and I hope that he shares my desire to do something about it.

Jeremy Hunt

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. Our real concern on this side of the House is about the sexualisation of young people in particular; we take a liberal view of adults' ability to make decisions about what they see on television. I do not want to pretend that there is an easy answer, because traditional linear viewing, which allowed the watershed, made it possible to be much more definite about what would be seen by children and what would be seen by adults. To answer the hon. Gentleman's question directly, we have no plans to relax any of the taste and decency regulations on terrestrial broadcasts.

Eagle eyed viewers may have sniggered - or gasped in 'outrage' - when a list flashed up on screen in Emmerdale's Marlon's cottage, featuring jam rags.

Under the innocuous terms such as rice and apples, was another surprising entry - pile cream.

Vivienne Pattison, director of campaigning group Mediawatch, has slammed the decision to screen the list.

She said: I think it's vulgar and inappropriate. 'Pile cream' I can deal with. It was the use of 'jam rag' that got me. I can't imagine a woman writing that. It's really vulgar and unnecessary.

Media watchdog Ofcom has so far registered no complaints about the list.

But ITV1 has apologised for any offence caused, saying in a statement: A shopping list featured in the background of a scene on Friday's episode of Emmerdale which included colloquial terms that some viewers considered inappropriate. We are looking into the matter and we apologise to any viewers if they were offended.

Update: A Red Rag to Middle England Whingers

28th July 2010. Based on article from theregister.co.uk, Thanks to Nick

Sadly, the ITV apology came a bit too late for Middle England, which was already shaken to the decent, upstanding foundations on which it rests. Traumatised Staffordshire mum-of-two Jean Walker recounted: I was stunned when my son, who is only seven, turned around and asked me what a jam rag was. It's not the kind of thing you want your kids seeing, so it was disappointing to see it on a programme like Emmerdale just after dinner.

You hear phrases like that used in the street or in the pub sometimes, but to use it in front of millions as part of a TV soap is a pretty silly thing to do.

An equally-rattled Sharon Kennedy, of Brum, reported: I couldn't believe my eyes when it appeared on screen - it's not the kind of language you expect to appear in one of our oldest soaps. I had to cover my young son's eyes because I didn't want to have to explain that kind of crass language to him at such a young age.

Maybe it was some kind of prank played on the cast by members of the production staff. If that was the case, I didn't find if particularly funny.

The BBC have defended an episode of EastEnders following complaints from viewers who said they were upset by a scene in which a Muslim character slammed down a copy of the Qur'an.

The gay character of Syed Masood, played by Marc Elliott had been struggling with his love for Christian Clarke (John Partridge) in the face of disapproval from his devout family. He dropped the religious text in frustration during the episode, screened earlier this week,

The BBC said yesterday that it had not intended to cause offence, but merely to demonstrate Syed's utter confusion.

Eamonn Holmes threatened the BBC with legal action after a comedy programme made jokes about his weight.

Holmes, who presents This Morning and Sky News, ordered his lawyers to send a letter to the BBC after a series of sketches were performed about him by Jon Culshaw on The Impressions Show.

Using the catchphrase, I was fierce hungry, so I was, three separate skits showed Holmes presenting his show after apparently eating a sofa, Frankie Dettori the jockey, and finally the gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show.

In the last sketch when asked where the flowers at the Chelsea Flower Show had gone Holmes said: Oh the big salad that was there, yes. But blow me down if I couldn't eat the whole thing again.

Following the legal letter the BBC has apologised to Holmes and assured him that he will not be appearing as an object of fun in any further series of the show.

Holmes's spokesman said: Eamonn has got the highest regard for Jon Culshaw but he felt that in this instance it was a joke that went too far. It was just playing to a stereotype.

The programme was aired in November 2009 and Holmes even interviewed Culshaw and his co-star Debra Stephenson on This Morning to promote the programme.

Hundreds of angry Christians have blasted the BBC over the storyline in long-running soap, Eastenders, which sees Pentecostal preacher Lucas Johnson turn into a crazed killer.

Viewers have complained that the plot is offensive to their faith, with others questioning whether the channel would air a similar storyline with a Muslim cleric.

They story has seen devout Lucas fail to help dying ex-wife Trina, strangle love rival Owen to death and most recently, murder his wife, Denise after confessing all transgressions to her.

A BBC spokesman has called the plot challenging but said: There's no suggestion Lucas' behaviour is connected to those of the Christian faith. The BBC said on it's website: Lucas is a very damaged and dangerous individual who has created a twisted version of the Christian 'faith' in his mind.

I have been listening to some of the BBC Glastonbury recordings on iPlayer.

Last year, the BBC's swear word lyric solution was to apply some weird kind of filter, presumably in an attempt to remove the swear word without you noticing, but in practice it resulted in some horrid distortion, that left you thinking it was a flaw in the performance or production, and only after a while did I realise it was intentionally added by the BBC due to swear words.

This year they've gone for the classic of turning the sound down altogether. It's as if John Beyer himself is controlling your volume knob for you, so you don't hear anything he doesn't want you to hear.

Bring back the bleep I say - at least it's honest. Everyone knows it's being bleeped because someone else might be offended.

The BBC did a good thing last week, which was to broadcast an episode of Family Guy, Partial Terms of Endearment, on BBC3. This episode wasn't screened at all in the US, because it is about Lois having an abortion. She becomes a surrogate mother for a friend, but the friend then dies in a car crash. So Lois heads to the Family Planning Centre with her husband, Peter, where she makes a reasoned and thoughtful decision to have an abortion. Peter's all in favour of an abortion, too, until he is shown a pro-life video by protestors outside the centre.

This is all incredibly funny. The video that Peter watches is a heroic pastiche: Science, proclaims the spokesman, has proven that within hours of conception, a human foetus has started a college fund and has already made your first mother's day card out of macaroni and glitter. At this point, it cuts to a picture of a foetus holding a handmade card which reads, Mom, don't kill me! I wuv you.

It's no surprise this episode hasn't aired in the States, although it is expected to be included in the DVD release of the series.

So three cheers to Family Guy, for having the courage of many of our convictions. And an extra cheer for the BBC, for letting us watch it.

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