The TV industry must accept some responsibility for its role in the recent UK riots , alternative MacTaggart lecturer Carol Vorderman has proclaimed. The former Countdown icon delivered a broadside against the industry’s treatment of working class voices – a theme at this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival – along with the way in which the mainstream media and public broadcasters have failed the nation. Vorderman, who has turned to political activism in recent years, did not hold back, and drew on the recent riots as an example.
She said: “After 14 years of austerity and lying by the privileged political class, this country is in an absolute mess and the TV industry must accept part of the responsibility for that too, including the riots. We used to be the message makers, the ones who tried to determine the conversation of the country and how responsible have we been with those messages? Not very, in many ways. In some cases, some might say reckless.
” Vorderman cited the “normalising” of controversial political figures such as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who appeared on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity.. Get Me Out Of Here! last year.
ITV boss Kevin Lygo faced tricky questions over Farage earlier this week, when his session host Rhianna Dhillon challenged him over that decision, stating that she “wouldn’t exist” if anti-immigration politicians like Farage had their way. Sparked by the killing of three children in Southport at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, the.