Complete and Utter Zebu

When we wrote about various TV shows deceiving viewers in Complete and Utter Zebu, we assumed that we were writing about something that was history. Programme after programme had been found to have faked footage and, being found out, the TV companies apologised and said it would never happen again. Indeed, the BBC ended up being fined £400,000 last year.

But it seems it’s still going on. The BBC Trust has discovered a series of “serious and repeated” breaches of editorial guidelines in the Corporation’s daytime shows. In Sun Sea and Bargain Hunting, for instance, staff posed as members of the public on seven occasions, something that also happened in Trash for Cash, which is, apparently, a TV show rather than a comment on the value of the licence fee.

“Trash for Cash is apparently a TV show rather than a comment on the value of the licence fee.”

All the shows named were made by just one company, Reef Television, which seems a trifle convenient. Reef say they knew about the deception being carried out but believed it was perfectly acceptable. And there, in a nutshell, is the reason we wrote Complete and Utter Zebu. What they’re saying is, “We knew we were conning the public but what’s so wrong with that? Everybody does it.”

From MPs downwards, it has become so commonplace to lie to us, deceive us and mislead us that, even after the broadcasting scandals of the past two years, it doesn’t even occur to these people that there might be something wrong in faking footage in a TV programme.

And if you give a wide berth to such shows, preferring instead “reality” TV, thinking at least they can’t fake real life, do bear in mind that all reality shows employ scriptwriters. Just what are they doing if what you’re watching is “reality”?