Could someone please explain to me why this is a story?

[witherwings]

Jeremy Paxman apologises for swearing on Newsnight

Broadcaster Jeremy Paxman apologised during Newsnight on Monday night after he used a swearword in the programme.

The presenter read quotes from Andrew Rawnsley's book, The End of the Party, which has controversially accused Prime Minister Gordon Brown of bullying.Seconds after reading the

Comments

[omniguy]

The BBC is under fire from so many sides now they are basically scared of their own shadow. Anything deemed even mildly offensive by the "moral majority" is a total no-no.

I've heard tell they now have to get sign-off on any show where they want to say "fuck". "Cunt" is right out.

A depressing state of affairs that can only get worse under the next administration who'll want to return us to "Watch with Mother" and "Women: Don't Drive"... or was that a Harry Enfield sketch?

[witherwings]

Looks like a public information film to me...

;)

[papilio_luna]

All the people who piss and moan about the BBC and want to defang it and defund it need to come over here and watch our PBS, Clockwork Orange-style, for a week. This is your future. Except even worse because right now 75% of everything worth watching on PBS originates from the BBC.

[paulnolan]

PBS gave the world Sesame Street though, right? It can't be that bad, can it?

[rhyana]

Occassionally there are some good documentaries, but for the most part, PBS either runs children programming, cooking shows, about an hour of political commentary or BBC series. In between the neverending telethons because they can't afford to reup the shows' licenses and they can't afford to produce their own programming.

[papilio_luna]

PBS isn't an entity that produces anything itself (though individual PBS stations may), but yes, it does show Sesame Street, which is produced by the Childrens Television Workshop-and has had to struggle constantly for funding since its inception.

Mostly what's on my local PBS station is awful concerts (geriatric doo-wop bands, Riverdance knock-offs), documentaries (many produced by the BBC in the first place, but a few good US-based ones like Frontline, otherwise known as Your 90 Minutes of Screaming Rage), childrens programming for a couple hours a day, and the occasional BBC drama. Oh and endless, endless, endless pledge drives. We have pretty much stopped watching PBS because they're in pledge drive mode about 50% of the time, which means they pre-empt all their normal programming and show more geriatric doo-wop bands, and infomercials (because they don't have to pay for them), all the while interrupting ever 15 minutes to beg for money

[celtic_thistle]

God yes. I can't even watch PBS anymore. The occasional good documentary it spawns I just get on Netflix. :/