I have been back in Australia for under a week and I am already cringing at the lack of intellectual rigour on display not only in the media but also in the country as a whole. I feel like jumping on the next plane back to The Netherlands!

Today, on Sunrise, a breakfast show that appeals to the housebound, (if you are meant to be at work, school or university, what are you doing watching morning television?), the great debate was whether the male hosts should wear a tie or not. Seriously, it was billed as the biggest national debate!

It is the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and there are numerous other stories of global significance what will and should appeal to the human interest and help advance the human condition. And yet the biggest debate on breakfast television was whether the ‘boys should wear  tie or not’. This is the sad testament of Australia and the dumbing down of intellectual debate and dialogue.

Australian television is dominated by ‘personalities’ such as David Koch, the host of Sunrise and a one time ambulance chaser. Do they not have a responsibility to help raise the level of intellectual dialogue? And help advance the nation? Or is the reason why we get such mundane shows and personality driven stories, due to the fact that we the public demand it? Other subjects get cast aside and put into the ‘too hard’ basket and we prefer to be entertained and not informed. Why are we like this? Where is the great innate curiosity? Where is the pioneering spirit?

Some time ago I spoke about this issue and on social engagement:

“We live in a world of iPods and Desperate Housewives. Where we canonise the frivolous into top ten lists. Where everything is neatly summed up in Sound bites for the media. And where the twits on Big Brother gain fame and stardom. This is the condition of the media or a reflection of the demand of the public? Sadly this is a reflection of our demands on the self-appointed gatekeepers of fashion and popular culture. This will change only if the public gets more engaged, in the political process, in social issues and in the global community. History has taught us that every time the public engages the standards of the media go up, and every time the standards of the media go up the politicians follow.”

We wait in hope.

Photo: Stolen from Sunrise website.