Newswipe

British journalist, comic writer, broadcaster, kermudgen and all around ledge Charlie Brooker has been providing you with satirical giggles out of the spotlight of the mainstream since around the year 2000. He was writer on such classics as the Eleven O’Clock show and Brass Eye’s controversial paedophile special.

 

In 2006, the BBC gave him his own little show on BBC4 called Screenwipe, in which he gave viewers a snidey, synical and hilarious insight into how TV programmes are put together combined with commentary on trends and fads in TV land.

 

In 2009, Brooker spun Screenwipe off into Newswipe, a show of a similar format but incorporating newspaper coverage. Brooker has become a John Stewart for this side of the atlantic, taking poor journalism to task for failing the public and slamming politicians for exploiting the media, all the while drawing sniggers from the viewing public.

 

Each week begins with a Charlie’s analysis of a major news event from the week. The show cuts between clips of news coverage and Brooker sat on his sofa making snarky remarks. This sounds potentially awful, but Brooker’s charm and wit carry it off. 

 

This week’s big news story in Britain was the Chilcot inquiry and Brooker uses the Iraq tribunal to vent his spleen on all things political: the huge gulf in behaviour between politicians and ordinary people, the media’s fascination with ex-Prime Ministers (particularly the dull minutia of there lives), news organisations attempts to pre-empt what would be said during the inquiry and the law stopping Newswipe from showing any clips from the inquiry due to a law preventing broadcasters from using footage of the event for the purposes of satire or entertainment.

 

Brooker then tears apart a film made by Richard Maedely for the Daily Politics on BBC2, in which the former daytime TV presenter defends the actions of Tony Blair.

 

Then there is a brief history lesson that shows how TV has gone from pandering to politicians to being aggressive and eventually invasive with them.

 

It’s not all about Charlie though each week there his slot allocated for a geust theorist, academic, comedian or broadcaster. This week’s Newswipe featured a six and a half minute film by Adam Cutis, the man behind The Century of the Self. Curtis outlines how the Watergate scandal has led to an overenthusiasm in investigative journalism causing paranoia against the government which stimulated neo liberalism in the 1980s. This tendency towards overzealousness in journalistic fraternaties has driven the news to look for controversy where it does not exist, creating false epidemics as with swine flu, bird flu and BSE. As a result we are all paranoid and sceptical.

 

Another regular slot is the Week in Bullshit in which Brooker highlights exmples of overcoverage of non-news. This week he slams coverage of the Toyota’s recall and Jordan’s wedding.

 

This week also saw a piece by regular contributor, American comedian Doug Stanhope. Doug points out that media coverage rarely focuses on the contribution of overpopulation to global warming. Stanhope delivers his message through an angry white white trash alcohlic persona but his message is pure intellectualism. He points to an academic study that shows that a woman multiplies her carbon footprint by 40 times just by popping out a couple of sprogs. This of course is not the sort of thing other media outlets would tell you.

 

The main diference between this year’s Newswipe and last year’s Newswipe is the audience. Screenwipe and Newswipe have been popular among critics and media types but the show never really drew much outside attention due to its position on BBC4. The last year however has seen Charlie Brooker break out and become something of a minor celebrity. Brooker’s work with Channel 4 hasn’t hurt. He presented You Have Been watching at 10.30 on Tuesdays during the Summer and was a featured in the Big Fat Quiz of the Year alongside the likes of Russell Brand, Jonathon Ross and Jimmy Carr at Christmas. Twitter has helped too. Chuck has slipped snuggly into the London Twitteratti circuit since joining the social networking site, and has picked up a fairly large following. The international pulling power of Twitter has even seen the Huffington Post champion Newswipe.

 

With a growing national celebrity and international acclaim beginning to surround this show it can’t be too long before the beeb decides to bring Newswipe in from the digital wilderness. Don’t be surprised if the next series of wipes appear on BBC1.

 

That’s what I’ve been watching this week, now go away.