The European Christian Lobby Against TV Indecency Learns From Its US Cousins the Organized Way to Fight Alleged Blasphemy and Obscenity. It Would Make Even Jerry Springer Blush!

Philip Stone January 16, 2005

There are times when journalists would give almost anything to pull back a story. Consider this lead from an AP story in late December describing how Europe is far more tolerant of television “obscenity” than is the U.S: “When the BBC recently announced it would air ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera,’ the West End hit famous for its vulgarity and cast of characters including transsexuals and a man wearing a diaper, no one batted an eye.” Three weeks later, with a record 47,000 complaints in hand, protesters burning their TV licenses in front of the BBC headquarters, and the controller of BBC2 and his family taken to a hidden location after receiving death threats, the program aired! Go To Follow Up & Comments

What changed?

Taking a page out of the lobby efforts of the Parents Television Council (PTC) in the US that sponsors very organized email campaigns against programs it disapproves, directing its fury at the FCC and television networks, several UK lobby groups tried the same thing and certainly turned out the numbers. Such diverse groups as Mediawatch UK, the Christian People’s Alliance Party,  and Christian Voice bombarded the BBC with similarly phrased emails of complaint. Christian Voice went one step further and published on its web site the names and home phone number of senior BBC executives.

OFCOM, the British equivalent of the FCC (but different, very different) received more than 7,000 complaints, which is four times more than for any other program.

Of course all the publicity did wonders for the show itself. The BBC2 channel drew 1.8 million viewers to the Saturday night telecast, some 300,000 more than usual for that time spot, with a 10.8 %share of viewers. But it still fell 1 million viewers short of its sister BBC1 channel that showed soccer highlights at the same time.

The Christian groups did not take kindly to seeing Jesus wearing a diaper (you’ll note the AP lead didn’t get that specific) nor that he admits to being “a bit gay”.  Neither did they like all the swearing (there were about 500 different instances, but since most of those were sung by a large chorus the Christian groups multiplied the number of swear words by the number of chorus members and complained of some 8,000 expletives.) And we won’t even broach the dancing Ku Klux Klan number!

To its credit, the BBC withstood the criticism even though its chairman, Michael Grade, embarked on a CYA (cover your ass) exercise.  He specifically asked the BBC Director General before the showing whether the program exceeded blasphemy or obscenity regulations.  Mark Thomson, a practicing Roman Catholic, assured Grade the program was not in any breach of the rules. Grade made clear afterwards that if the program is later found by regulators to have contravened the regulations then Thomson could be in real trouble.

Grade himself admitted he has seen the show on stage and he also watched the telecast.  The BBC governors (board of directors) has the right to preview shows before transmission but chose not to do so. That’s a similar position to the FCC which refuses to issue rulings before a program airs, and investigates only afterwards.

But the protesters are still going strong. Operation Christian Vote has written to Scottish prosecutors complaining that the program was blasphemous, and in Scotland blasphemy is still a criminal offense although there has not be such a prosecution since 1843.

It’s not that the BBC isn’t used to criticism urging it to clean up its programs. Back in the 1960s, Mary Whitehouse, a gray-haired lady in her 50s, started a one-woman campaign to clean up television programming. Within a relatively short time she gained so much influence that when she spoke television executives listened. She died in 2001 aged 91, but Mediawatch, the organization she left behind, is still active and played a major role in the Springer criticism.

But what is different now is that technology has made it much easier to protest. It takes just a few minutes at the keyboard to fire off an email, the contents of which you have copied and pasted off a web site. And for organizers of such campaigns, an Internet web site is indispensable in providing all the information necessary – addresses etc. – for those who share their beliefs.

In the US investigators are coming to the realization that hardly any of the protesters have actually watched the programs. They are just told by the protest organizers what the program is about and told to protest and they do. The same is likely true of the Springer campaign. It’s doubtful many saw the stage presentation, yet there were 47,000 protests before the program screened. There were about 1,000 calls to the BBC after the program aired and some 400 of those were in praise.

Jerry Springer –The Opera has as its principal character Jerry Springer, the US talk show host. Springer is played by David Soul, known to many as Hutch in the Starsky & Hutch TV police show in the 80s. Soul now lives in London and he became a UK citizen.  The show has won four of the London stage’s most prestigious musical awards. 

It was scheduled to appear on Broadway this year, but negotiations are said to have broken down, and New York will have to wait until 2006. It closes in London in mid-February, but will then begin a UK tour in the fall.

There is good news, however, for the Christian protesters who might like to actually see the stage production before it closes. The producers have declared that anyone who shows up at the box office with Bible in hand will get their ticket at a hefty discount.

ftm Follow Up & Comments

No Judicial Review Against Springer Show - June 19, 2005

A British high court judge has refused a request by the Christian Institute for a judicial review against the BBC for broadcasting Jerry Springer – the Opera.

That decision followed one by OFCOM, the broadcasting regulator, and one by the BBC’s Board of Governors Program Complaint Commission that the January broadcast of the opera fell within the freedom of artistic expression and did not violate the BBC’s charter.

Jana Bennett, BBC director of television, said after the high court refused to intervene, “While we take any potential to offend the audience very seriously, we believe that it is the BBC’s right and duty to remain a public space in which the widest range of ideas and creativity can be shared by the public.”

The program had an audience of 2 million. There were 47,000 complaints prior to the broadcast and 8,000 afterwards.