The Jeremy Kyle show was not a program designed to shed the light of wisdom – but to box, entrench, widen and comodify ‘ignorance’. It bordered on the ultimate in dumbing down. The gullible were asked to parade their folly in public, air their dirty washing on telly to millions of viewers. It incentivised ignorance, by giving emotionally volatile and often intellectually challenged people 15 minutes of fame to humiliate themselves in front of prurient TV audiences.
Did the TV puppet-string holding executives, those black suit hypocrites of calculated charm and false sincerity, show a social Darwinist callousness when discussing how to make a few more psychopathic millions? One could imagine the conversations. “I know, let’s create a dog-eat-dog circus for the emotionally volatile we can make some money and ratings out of it. Lets give the stupid stupid like when we fed dead cows to cows.”
In these shows the door of the lighted stairway to wisdom is locked but the dark steps down to the cellar of ignorance is open and inviting.
This was a perfect example of a neo-lib, Margaret Thatcher, market driven product. Another fast junk food concept imported from the US of A. This use of broadcasting would make Lord Reith turn in his grave because it proselytises a public evil. That programs like this should be on modern day UK television is a disgrace.