His dark vitriol: Pullman on kids’ TV
According to The Guardian, Philip Pullman, bestselling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, has taken aim at modern children’s television programming.
Pullman castigated broadcasters for sacrificing high-quality programmes in favour of those that yield more marketing opportunities. “Children are regarded by broadcasters as a marketing opportunity at best, a dangerous and feral threat at worst, and an expensive nuisance otherwise,” Pullman said. “This social poison goes much deeper than broadcasting, of course, but it’s particularly visible there.
“There used to be … a sense of responsibility among broadcasters: a feeling that this extraordinary medium … should be used to make things better, richer, more interesting for those who made up the audience - especially for children,” he added.
He won’t get much of an argument out of us about marketing-driven kids’ TV, though we do think it would have been more effective had Philip delivered his rant to, say, Big Bird. Perhaps in song.
