I agree that "Big Brother" is total nonsense,and worse is probably depraved as well but really, like it or not money "talks". Put simply, one doesn't have to view it and if enough people have this mind set it will surely go off the air.

Hey Bill, keep your morals off our freedoms. Don't like BB, do as most of us do, don't watch. If some bozos and bogans want to get in a house with cameras 24/7 and annoy the hell out of each other for people's sad entertainment and possible prizes, what business is it of anyone who doesn't want to watch it?

Go to the other OLO item today. Personal freedoms. That means the freedom to be stupid, and the freedom to watch others be stupid. It even means the freedom to write shallow, moralistic opinion pieces about stupid people watching other people be stupid.

The BB 'incident' this week has been grossly inflated by people not involved for grubby political purposes. I put you in this category, Bill. It was not broadcast on TV. It happended in the early AM on a very blurry internet feed. It was not an 'alleged sexual assault' as those involved have not described it that way. It was a bit of stupid sexual horseplay between adults, one of whom said 'stop-enough' and it then stopped. Channel 10 did the right thing by expelling 2 males. Episode finished.

Bill, my 'off' switch is working just fine. Are some people that lazy that they can't walk over to their TV set and hit the 'off' switch? How sad.

Reading the astonishing attitudes and sexually predatory behaviour deemed, not just acceptable, but admirable by some of the 8 men "of interest" in the Diana Brimble Inquest - you remember the "fat, ugly dog" remark and won't go near anything over 60kilos stuff - I see Big Brother with new eyes. Perhaps, particularly because I have two teenage daughters, its good that we get to see the kind of attitudes that are "normal" for some Aussie men and tolerated by some Aussie women. It gives me something to warn my girls about and make clear the grossness of the behaviour and the attitudes.
I don't think these attitudes are new, either. I think there has always been a strong mysogynistic streak in the sexual behaviour of some Australian men, but it was kept hidden and when seen -in pubs, clubs, parties etc - was laughed about and applauded. Look at how P&O protected the 8 men despite their predatory, indeed, fatal behaviour, pity P&O offered no such protection to Diana Brimble and her family. Ten, on the other hand, responded quickly and appropriately to protect Camilla and banish the two men. Maybe some men are getting the message now. Helped by the recent exposure of previously condoned behaviour by footballers and the inspirational coroner Jacqueline Milledge. How galling for the 60 kilo remark man to find himself facing Ms Milledge, and her having the power to pass judgement on him, for a change. Must be his worst nightmare, but it is sweet indeed for those of us women who weigh more than 60 kilos.
If this behaviour is part of common Australian behaviour - and I think it is - better we see it, talk about it and condemn it, than pretend it doesn't exist and so give it tacit approval.

Well jeez Bill,

I think Question Time in Parliament is immoral and a waste of time. Watching these people bully each other, swear and not answer the questions is also very voyeuristic.

Do as I do, watch something else. Probably something American involving a murder or two which is solved by the heroic law enforcement officers in exactly the same way as the all do in less than an hour. God invented the remote control for a reason.

The only reason "sex sells" is because people make an issue of it in the first place.

You can rest assured that just as there is an apparent audience for the mundane "murder-investigation-solution" genre of mindless tv shows that come from America, there is equally an audience bored of these that want an alternative such as big brother.

Get over it.

Good on you Bill. The trouble with the off-switch argument is that the media pick up on all the BB "incidents" and broadcast/publish them far and wide. This means that my kids can't avoid finding out about men rubbing their crotches in the face of a young woman (unless we become hippies in the bush). If we lose the idea that the sexual harassment of women by men is NOT OK, then we are in trouble - my kids are in trouble.