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Urban Hat€monger ? · 03-27-2008, 02:19 PM

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TV QUIZ SHOWS 'FUEL BULLYING'

TV quiz shows such as Never Mind The Buzzcocks are a bad influence on children and fuel bullying at school, teachers have warned.

Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said he was "shocked" by some of the "cruel" insults celebrities dish out to each other on the show.

He warned that children copy the abusive behaviour they see on Buzzcocks and They Think It's All Over and use "grossly offensive and sexist" language in the playground.

Speaking at the NUT annual conference in Manchester, Mr Sinnott said: "We've drawn attention to the appalling language of some young people which is often directed at each other and their teachers.

"This language is too often grossly offensive and sexist."

Mr Sinnott blamed television shows for allowing bad language to be broadcast and encouraging pupils to bully each other over their size.

"Too often such cruel behaviour can be seen on television programmes like Never Mind The Buzzcocks," he said.

"When I watch that programme I am quite shocked at the personal nature of some of the attacks by celebrities on other celebrities.

"We are promoting a type of speaking to each other that diminishes other people.

And here's what Daily Mirror columnist Brian Reade has to say about it in reply....

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All hail the teachers' unions for lightening up an Easter which was about as grim as a night on the lash with Ruth Kelly.

The NUT's conference call for a Troops Out Of Our Schools movement was a good rib-tickler.

The thinking being that by banning MoD open days, when chaps with stripes tell pupils about the role of our armed forces and the careers on offer, we put an end to our involvement in illegal slaughter.

It must be a great reassurance to any Slobodan Milosevic out there to know he'll be able to carry out mass rape and genocide minus any British military intervention with full NUT backing. That's got to be good for our kids' futures, hasn't it?

Then there was the NASUWT delegate who called on the government to help teachers stamp out the real problems in classrooms: "The constant low-level disruption like the tap, tap, tap of a pen on a desk and orchestrated coughing."

Cripes, when did the little blighters start carrying out these jolly japes? 1952? 1876? The first time a quill was ever picked up by a bored child who'd rather be out catching the Bubonic Plague than learning to count? Whatever next, synchronised bottom-burping?

The NASUWT are right. Let's give teachers a shed-load of training cash and a fortnight away from class to learn how to stamp out this new-fangled anarchy.

And then there was NUT general secretary Steve Sinnott claiming BBC2's Never Mind The Buzzcocks is the root of all evil in our schools because the panellists launch cruel attacks on each other which might be copied. Now this is a comic gem.

First of all Never Mind The Buzzcocks is a satirical adult programme aired after the watershed, the way That Was The Week That Was was when Mr Sinnott was a nipper.

I let my teenage son and daughter watch it because, more than any other show, it's the one we most enjoy seeing together.

Since Simon Amstell became host, it is easily the funniest thing on the telly.

Who could forget his line to Amy Winehouse: "Your likes include Kelly Osbourne and the smell of petrol.

I like matches - let's do lunch." Or his putting down of plastic punk Donny Tourette: "Oh no, he's put sunglasses on. That'll show Thatcher."

I encourage them to watch it in the hope that they'll become more rounded adults by picking up crucial life skills - comic timing, self-deprecation and how never to take yourself seriously.

That they might learn how it's healthy to attack corporate cynicism, the shallowness of celebrity and bimbo-ness (see Preston storming off after Amstell read extracts from Chantelle's "autobiography").

But most of all in the hope it will sharpen their bullshit antennae and make them realise you should always pour contempt on soundbite merchants who are desperate for publicity. Men like Mr Sinnott.

Which is probably why he fears the show so much.

Because he knows if he were ever to appear on it, he'd get the back ripped out of him for being a po-faced joke.

Teachers should Never Mind The Buzzcocks .

And stick to the teaching.