UnNews talk:TV3

Wikipedia has this self-appointed censor who calls herself "Andromeda" (chain me to a rock!). Basically, she just wipes any criticism of TV3 - Catalonia's crappy public TV station.

The following is a protest against Wiki-inspired censorship masquerading as neutrality. I put it here because the chances are it will be wiped from the "official" site. Enjoy.

Censorship masquerading as neutrality

As usual, Andromeda has failed to address the issues. She says that “Cantamania” was a success but the question is, in what terms? Remember that TV3’s only raison d’être is to promote the Catalan language through broadcasting. A program that is slated by both the Catalan parliamentary control commission and media critics because it contains a great deal of Spanish and relatively little Catalan (and sub-standard at that) can hardly be called a success. If TV3 is only interested in ratings and advertising revenue, why not privatize it and let it compete on its merits with private stations? On the other hand, if it is serious about promoting Catalan, programs like “Cantamania” have no place in the schedule. My views are of little account but I would suggest that those of the host of critics among Catalonia’s “makers and shakers” are very much to the point. I concede that “No em ratllis" is popular but then so is female nude wrestling (I vividly recall this being shown on one of Berlusconi’s stations). Surely public broadcasting should aspire to more? Why not leave the commercial stations to scrape the bottom of the barrel? They are better at it and they do so at no cost to Catalonia’s long-suffering taxpayers.

“Via Augusta" is not only expensive (€210,000 an episode – an unheard of figure for a TV3 drama serial) – it is what Hollywood would call a “turkey”. But then someone ought to have wondered whether commissioning the scriptwriters of “Jet Lag” (a tired lesbian comedy) to write “La Via Augusta” was not a sure-fire recipe for disaster. In most networks, ideas for series like this are killed off at the planning stage. TV3 works differently – a politically-appointed management class and other vested interests have created the mother of all TV turkey farms. How else can one explain deadly dull programs on mushroom hunters, tourist board propaganda posturing as a bird's-eye view of Catalonia and a host of other departures from sanity? As for "Ventdelplà" and "Mar de fons", they may well cater to hidebound Catalan audiences but they augur ill for the network’s future. Right now, TV3’s managers are worried silly that the network is not catering to the region’s most recent immigrants (over 1.3 million out of a population of 7.3 million in the last 20 years). Judging by the standard and focus of the network’s output, TV3 has every reason to be scared. Throw digital terrestrial television and Internet video content into the picture and TV3’s chances of surviving far into the 21st century begin to look decidedly remote.

Andromeda’s gratuitous reference to a masonic conspiracy may sound weird to foreign readers but it reveals all too clearly where Andromeda is coming from (if you guessed outer space, you are at least half right). You see, General Franco had this hang-up about the masons (which is perhaps not surprising when you consider that almost a third of the Spanish Republic’s MPs in the 1930s were lodge members). The Fascist dictator even built his very own crazy reconstruction of a masonic temple in El Prado palace complete with life-size dummies. So what Andromeda is snidely suggesting is that any criticism of TV3 is inspired by hankerings after Spain’s all-too-recent dictatorial past. Nothing could be further from the truth. Criticism of TV3’s output should be interpreted as a healthy sign of democracy (not least when it comes from members of Catalonia’s parliamentary control commission). Andromeda’s knee-jerk reaction to any criticism of TV3 reveals that the notion of democratic debate in Catalonia is still in its infancy. Indeed, her puerile censorship of anything that sheds light on the less satisfactory aspects of TV3 hearkens back to the mindset of Franco’s Spain. In my humble opinion, Catalonia and Wikipedia deserve better.

Heliodore 21:51, 13 June 2007 (UTC)