Ten gets told to put its pants back on - or else

It's time to dust off the cardigan, reach for the walking stick and hobble, like the old man I am, towards the pulpit for a little bit of a spray. The Weekend Aus is reporting Channel 10 has decided to haul the 'tidied-up' version of "Big Brother - Adults Only" off the air for good, after some of the more conservative members of the federal Liberal and National Parties complained directly to the Prime Minister about the show's steamy content. But why, after about five seasons of the raunchy and downright ridiculous "Big Brother - Adults Only" - which drew criticism from its very first show - has Ten pulled the plug now? Well, sorry to disappoint, but Ten Chairman Nick Falloon hasn't had a crisis of conscience. Instead, it appears the network is a little more receptive to political complaints when they want something - especially when that something involves wiping out the current cross media laws, which, at the moment, forbid the sale of Ten to any of the country's major media operators.

During the week, Nationals' Senator Barnaby Joyce, along with a bunch of other members of the Coalition, roasted poor old Falloon and Ten Chief Executive Grant Blackley over the show, before taking their grievances to Cabinet, and then to the PM himself. For a young Senator, in his first term, Joyce has unparalleled access to the strings of power in Canberra, and when it somes to something as crude as tit and bum, the Queensland Senator would have reveled in the chance to kick BB-AA off the air for good. The Prime Minister had no choice but to lend an ear, and act, which is exactly what he did.

Now Joyce probably doesn't have the audacity or the stupidity to directly threaten Falloon and the Ten Mafia himself, but on issues of censorship, taste and family values, Joyce and the PM are two hankeys cut from the same cloth. So whether the final threat came from Joyce himself (unlikely), Communications Minister Helen Coonan (most likely), or the PM (possible), I don't think we should be in any doubt where the pressure came from to begin with. Just remember that the PM has signaled he wants to abort, or at the very least drastically reduce, the Senate's power to act as a true house of review with his decision to slice back the number of Senate Committees to 10, and he'd most definitely need the support of the rogue Queensland Senator when it goes before parliament in a couple of months.

Oh, where's the high-horse-flogging outrage promised from my curmudgeon alter ego at the beginning of this post you say? Well here's my two cents: "Big Brother - adults Only" was a deplorable excuse for a television show, which symbolised everything wrong with this tantalised generation of voyeurs. (What guy in his right mind would even think of getting his rocks off using the armpit of a female friend while she was in the process of flapping around, doing the same to another bloke with the other armpit? And who would want to hear about it?) It was a show that could only be tolerated with the aid of a six pack of beer (at least), a couple of shots of absinthe and a bible. I'm grateful it's off, and the housemates' pants are back on; and I'm even more grateful the executive arm of our government has taken over the labourious task of censoring what we watch, see, hear, and read. Bring on the media reforms I say.