Very model of a major beat up

• By David Knox on May 15, 2008
• Filed Under News

This is probably a futile plea…. but Reality TV needs to lift its game, and along with it the media players that are complicit with it.

This week there were quite a few stories about bullying in Australia’s Next Top Model. You know the FOX8 show? It’s the one where the judges bully the girls. It’s the one that thrives on girly catfights and bitching, and it’s rating quite nicely in the pay arena thankyou.

So did some girls bully another with their constant taunting and throwing water at one of the quieter contestants? Probably. Should we be surprised? Nope. Should we be surprised it hit the press the same day as the episode airing? Nope. That’s why it didn’t appear as ‘news’ here.

Where is the duty of care on this stuff? So a cameraman is filming all this and presumably a producer is somewhere within firing range, but nobody bothers to step in? And then the judges lash out at the behaviour and use it for episode drama. Yeah, right.

And now we’re supposed to read press stories that this girl is “the most hated model in the pay-TV show’s history?” Fan sites are going into “overdrive?” She’s 16 years old!

As we all know, most people who enter reality television in 2008, pretty much get what they deserve. Select editing, manipulation, phony constructs designed to push conflict…it’s all par for the course nowadays.

Bullying is not to be taken lightly either but somehow I think it’s the media that is the real bully here.

TV Tonight is providing no links that will further the names in this ’story’….

• Top
• Home

• Previous post: Pop-tastic Eurovision ready to wow
• Next post: TEN boss: Seven win 08? I don’t think so.