{"id":552,"date":"2007-08-01T10:05:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-01T16:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/?p=552"},"modified":"2007-08-01T10:05:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-01T16:05:00","slug":"death-on-tv-collaboration-complicity-or-collusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/2007\/08\/death-on-tv-collaboration-complicity-or-collusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Death on TV: collaboration, complicity or collusion?"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/span>he tea-cup sized trust storm enveloping Paul Watson<\/span> and his documentary, Malcolm & Barbara: Love\u2019s farewell<\/span>, continues to brew. He was on the Today<\/span> programme, Barbara Pointon talked to BBC News<\/span>. (I chipped in briefly on News 24<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s film was made at the invitation of Mrs Pointon (husband Malcolm being unable to grant or withhold consent), and with the express purpose of dramatizing and publicizing the plight of carers and Alheimers\u2019 sufferers (a worthy if partial cause). The marketing USP that separated it from other sympathetic, well-intentioned fare was death on camera.<\/p>\n

Now Mrs Pointon is discovering that collaboration and complicity are all but indistinguishable on TV.<\/p>\n

David Halberstam<\/span><\/a> wrote perceptively about this in the very different context of the US presidency: <\/p>\n

[John F] Kennedy … knew about the inner mechanics and desires of television producers. The television people wanted the best show, and the best show had him at his best. He talked CBS into televising a tour of the White House with Jackie. When the show was filmed, he was allowed a last-minute appearance. He knew immediately, even before it was over and before anyone looked at the film, that his tone was wrong, that he had been perhaps too flip, and he asked CBS to redo it. When the producers looked at the film they found he was right, and of course accommodated him.<\/p>\n

When he did a special with all three networks, there was an agreement to film ninety minutes and cut to an hour. Some people watching the filming noticed that George Herman of CBS seemed to ask the toughest questions, and that when he did the President became vague. When the editing took place it was the network producer\u2019s instinct, not the White House\u2019s suggestion, to cut the weak answers. They weren\u2019t sharp, they did not make a good show.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

People have come to expect the best show. Television now works harder than ever to sell itself to fewer and fewer. Doubtless the current argument over her husband in his dying days is not what Barbara Pointon wanted, or intended, but it is one she helped fuel.<\/p>\n

Expect more problems down the line, not less.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The tea-cup sized trust storm enveloping Paul Watson and his documentary, Malcolm & Barbara: Love\u2019s farewell, continues to brew. He was on the Today programme, Barbara Pointon talked to BBC News. (I chipped in briefly on News 24.) Watson\u2019s film was made at the invitation of Mrs Pointon (husband Malcolm being unable to grant or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[15,25,61,275],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-bbc","tag-itv","tag-tv","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}