Getting the bugs out of television

Published on July 30, 2007

Until the day arrives when we all have screens implanted in our brains so we can watch whatever the heck we want to watch, no one is going to agree.

The supremely optimistic Prime Minister's Office arranged a seminar last Thursday on the new ratings proposals, and bedlam broke out.

Amnuay Sunthornchote, head of a group that's committed to good old-fashioned family morals, accused the producers of soap operas of portraying the dark side of society.

"There are many good things they could be showing, but they choose the worst things, like a father raping his daughter," he said.

Actor-turned-producer Pongpat Vachirabanjong had heard this line before. He demanded to know what soap opera has ever shown a father raping his daughter. (It must have been a rhetorical demand, because no one answered.)

Pongpat then repeated another familiar line - that television producers will be mortally wounded by the airtime restrictions - but he got the sensation that he was being scrutinised like an alien culture.

"The minute I walked into the meeting," he said later, "I felt like a parasite."

Enjoy more Soopsip on the Net at http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/soopsip, where you'll find a steady diet of political and celebrity gossip.