Newswipe - Charlie Brooker's swipe at the news (Charlie Brooker's Newswipe)

Member Name: jesperado

Product:	Charlie Brooker's Newswipe
Date:	23/04/09 (101 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very funny and intelligent

Disadvantages: None - it really is very good

Charlie Brooker is a British comedian, columnist and writer known for his, often surreal and rather sweary, satirical take on modern media. Aside from his own programmes such as Screenwipe and his regular contributions to The Guardian, Brooker has also been involved in the writing of some excellent comedy shows such as Nathan Barley, The Eleven O Clock Show and the very controversial Brass Eye Paedophile Special.

Newswipe sees Charlie (short for Charlton) turn his sharp wit on the news 'circus'. As a fan of Screenwipe and as someone who is often left feeling confused by TV news broadcasts, I was really looking forward to seeing Brooker's take on it; I was not disappointed. He seems to share my confusion at the myriad tortured metaphors and pointless graphical representations that seem to make up bulletins. His look at the treatment of the credit crunch was particularly funny and demonstrated the way in which the news has forgotten that its main remit is to inform the public not to entertain them. The segments in this show are in the same style as Screenwipe with Charlie commenting on snippets of footage from the news from the sofa in his flat in much the same way as the rest of us - who are all equally frustrated by a news network seemingly designed to be both patronising and incomprehensible - alternating between sarcastic comments, bewildered looks and occasional outbursts of profanity.

As entertaining as Charlie's snarky comments and often slightly juvenile humour is, it is backed up by a sound understanding of the way the media works and as such Brooker is in a prime location to expose the exploitative and deliberately provocative aspects of rolling news. The section on the media coverage of Jade Goody's death was really well handled. Where many have fallen on one side or other of the 'people's princess/thick racist' divide, Newswipe offers an overview of the coverage of what was essentially a sad story of a young woman who had lived her life in front of the camera dying of a horrible illness at a young age. The programme shows how both the tabloids and broadsheets were tying themselves in knots condemning Jade one minute as a 'vile racist' and applauding her as a 'working class saint' the next. Although it tackles this subject in a considered way, Brooker manages to claw it back from being too 'worthy' with his irreverent humour at the expense of the commentators rather than at Jade.

This show is as clever and interesting as it is funny and it will definitely make you consider how objective the news is rather than just taking for granted that it is the truth. When talking about how bad news frequently overshadows good, Brooker uses the example of the school shooting in Germany to show that because of this a massive march for peace in Northern Ireland went by almost unnoticed. This demonstrates just how the perspective can be skewed to show that the world is a dangerous and scary place rather than providing an accurate portrayal of reality. The most striking demonstration of this in Newswipe is the section in which the advice of a forensic psychiatrist explaining what the news can do to help prevent future school shootings is edited together with how the broadcasts about the shootings actually air:

Forensic Psychiatrist (FP): Don't lead the story with the sound of sirens
Cut to: clips of footage all beginning with sirens blaring

FP: Don't keep mentioning the body count
Cut to: 'Seventeen were dead by the time the gunman turned the rifle on himself'

FP: Don't make the gunman out to be an anti-hero
Cut to: 'Dressed in black combat trousers and a black baseball cap the gunman stormed into the school'

Frightening stuff, I'm sure you'll agree. But it is this ability to make people think whilst making them laugh without seeming too worthy or highbrow that makes Newswipe another success in a long line of excellent work by Charlie Brooker.

Summary: Another excellent show from Brooker