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Swearing chef prompts tighter #*@%& rules
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-20 15:00 The issue has consumed the Australian media, with prominent columnist Piers Akerman in Sydney's Daily Telegraph saying Australia was becoming a less civil society. CRUDE CULTURE Governor-General Michael Jeffery, who represents Britain's Queen Elizabeth as Australian head of state, told a newspaper interviewer that television programs glorified bad manners and foul language. "There is a culture of crudeness. Crudeness in our language in high public life. The language you see coming out over the television, the language in political areas in some parts. It's a crudity which I don't think is a good thing," Jeffery told the Sydney Morning Herald. Australia's Nine Network, which broadcasts Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares programs, strongly defended the shows, which it said were among the nation's most popular. In an inquiry submission, executives defended Ramsay's use of expletives, saying the chef sometimes used them as praise. Network director of regulatory affairs David Coleman told the inquiry that ratings for the Ramsay programs had increased since the public debate about swearing on television, with a typical program now attracting 1.4 million viewers. He said the network had received only 12 written complaints about the episode which prompted the Senate inquiry. "That is one written complaint for about every 117,000 viewers. I think that suggests we are not out of step with community standards," he said. |
