If you haven’t caught the news yet, Big Brother Australia is under a huge amount of fire at the moment following an incident of sexual harassment, or sexual assault depending on which report you read, where Big Brother contestant John pinned Camilla down on her bed whilst contestant Ashley whacked her on the face with his manhood.
Whilst not condoning the incident for one minute, their eviction from the house (the right thing for the producers to do) has caused meltdown amongst the so-called protectors of Australian morals, with calls for the show to be shut down completely.
It’s hard to get a full grasp as to what is happening because the Big Brother website itself is currently displaying this message:
And the biggest of the independent fan forums is also having problems with traffic as well:
What we do know is this:
According to Behind Big Brother, Senator Helen Coonan has spoken to the Australian Communication and Media Authority to determine if Endemol Southen Star have breached broadcast codes of practice for letting the incident be shown on internet streams and Opposition leader Kim Beazley has made a statement recommending Channel 10 make this season of Big Brother the last.
Police are investigating the incident, and naturally the do-gooders of the Family First Party are calling for charges.
Rumors on other sites indicate everything from the show not going to air tonight (eviction night) through to Ash returning to the house Tuesday.
It’s just a shame that the imbecile element of Australian politics is using this as an excuse to bash this style of television once more. At the end of the day it’s time for reasonable people to stand up and say that if we don’t like this style of television we wont watch…and politicians should have no role in it…now if only we had a 1st amendment.
Tags: Big Brother Australia, Big Brother
Update: The Big Brother website now has an official post stating that the show will go on, and reports also indicated that Camilla has been interviewed by police but will not be pressing charges.
mmmmmm mmmmmmmmm…. i found out last night what happened via a technorati search for blogs and whatnot.. i wish the show would shut down… but now it seems like it will continue… bloody stupid isnt it?
our country is just going downnnnn and downhill.. mmm mm Dianne Brimble, mmm mm the 8yr old little girl who just died, mm mmm channel 9 in the shit too… doesnt end does it?
It’s not ‘reality’ it’s voyeur television, and I’m pretty disappointed in the way BB, this year, has been desperate for ratings, to the point where they cut and spliced Michael and David. Michael had every right to confront Gretel, and Gretel didn’t have a comeback during taht hot moment but she typically transforms into a spin doctor, blaming the ‘media’ for exagerrations when the producers and editors behind the scenes do the same thing.
Do you really think that anyone would really be interested in sponsoring the show next year? They no longer have any major car manufacturers, they don’t have Telstra, they don’t have Sony. Major corporate players have ignored BB this year, and after this incident who knows?
What I found disturbing is that this event indicates how ugly it can get when people are shoved into artificial environments that are so far removed from everyday reality, in addition to how Ashley and John disliked Camilla (enough to nominate her for eviction for weeks on end) for them to ultimatley ‘outdo’ themselves.
And then there was Gretel saying, ‘they were great housemates’ on live air on the Eviction show. She should really just shut up or be removed from television.