Captain Gh3y said:
Now I have something to refer to every time one of the intellectual heavyweights like mathmite assert that the unnamed masses are controlled by this show and its channel 9 equivalent.
How so?
The level of complaints indicates that some people realise its bullshit. Not the large majority of people who watch it, who believe that what they see in it is *real* & *decent*.
Ninety-five of the 1109 complaints received by Free TV during 2005-06 were gripes with Today Tonight.
The complaints mostly concerned "perceived bias and/or inaccuracy in reporting, graphic material considered to be inappropriate for the time zone and perceived discrimination in reporting", the Free TV report says.
And the reason why this bias DOES exist in the show, is because they are appealing to a class of ignorant/disgruntled idiots who don't know which way is up (not because they actually believe it themselves, or believe that it is the best thing to report). They have to 'dumb it down' for the truck drivers, single parents and 60+ y.o liberal party faithfuls who watch the show and actually believe TT when it says that "the Australian flag is under attack".
But even TT gets it wrong. To get an idea of who they think they are appealing to, you only need to look at the people they do stories on. The people who live in caravan parks, the man with out any front teeth, the single mother with 20 kids.
They appeal to paranoid nationalists who "are the no-hopers produced by transcendental capitalism and the policies of neo-liberal government. They are the 'refugees of the interior', and it is ironic to see so many of them mobilised in defending 'the nation' against 'the refugees of the exterior'. Global rejects set against global rejects constructing what is perhaps the greatest phobic international order instituted since World War II." - Ghassan Hage. "Against paranoid nationalism", Pp. 21.
