A close encounter with the Media Watch humour police

It's official. You can add women drivers to the list of things that are no longer acceptably the stuff of humour. That particular edict was handed down last night by no lesser authority than the ABC's Media Watch, the corporation's self-appointed arbiter of what is and isn't "appropriate" on the airwaves and in print. While this might appear silly at first blush, there is a darker side to it. One of the hallmarks of the Australian character used to be our iconoclastic love of taking the P155 out of everything. The fun police at the ABC obviously think that should be stopped. It has been a long time between drinks, but I was on the end of Media Watch's righteous indignation last night over a motoring segment last week while standing in on ABC Radio's Morning Program. The West Australian I seriously doubt that Media Watch has had anything really useful or serious to contibute to media analysis in this country for some years now.

Posted via email from Garth's posterous