The Block: Gets a Loving Dose of Reality

We like to stay UP around here, not quite Apple Office UP, more like the new Larry Page Google kind of UP, realistic with a couple of perks left. We try not to get too negative –  having blurted all that – one thing we loath is Reality TV! WTF is the world coming to, and NO we’er not old, just clever! It was a dose of reality when three of the four houses in the Channel 9  Television series The Block 2011 failed to sell at auction over the weekend. Now all we need is for producers to lose buckets of money and can such crap!

Noteworthy was that there was no shortage of buyers for the auctions, even when you take out those who had a bidding paddle intended for a few seconds of camera fame. The genuine buyers – mostly represented by unemotional buyers’ agents who also saw the marketing opportunities – just wouldn’t budge on price, and Channel 9 prudently didn’t want a sale at any cost. The reserves all matched their marketing campaigns, so the pre auction raid by Victorian Consumer Affairs to investigate claims of under-quoting was just another stunt that helped the ratings  :: Read the full article »»»»

Sex Predators Trapped by Television Show

Germany – A television show that attempts to unmask paedophiles using a young actress as bait has come under attack after a suspect vanished. The program called Scene of the Crime: Internet – Protecting Our Children and hosted by a high-profile political wife is based on a similar US show, To Catch A Predator, that went off air after the suicide of a suspected molester in Texas in 2007. On the show, a young woman pretending to be a minor seeks out potential child abusers in internet chat rooms. When a meeting is arranged, a girl playing a 13-year-old goes along, with the hidden cameras rolling. The suspects, whose images are blurred and voices distorted when they are broadcast, are subsequently confronted by a journalist playing the mother of the young “victim”. READ MORE

Sex Predators Trapped by Television Show

Germany – A television show that attempts to unmask paedophiles using a young actress as bait has come under attack after a suspect vanished. The program called Scene of the Crime: Internet – Protecting Our Children and hosted by a high-profile political wife is based on a similar US show, To Catch A Predator, that went off air after the suicide of a suspected molester in Texas in 2007. On the show, a young woman pretending to be a minor seeks out potential child abusers in internet chat rooms. When a meeting is arranged, a girl playing a 13-year-old goes along, with the hidden cameras rolling. The suspects, whose images are blurred and voices distorted when they are broadcast, are subsequently confronted by a journalist playing the mother of the young “victim”. READ MORE