CITIZEN BLAND

What is the point of Citizen A?

I was slouched on the couch last night and flicked on, by chance, to Citizen A on Face TV (Sky 83).

Joining Martyn  Bradbury on the panel was the ubiquitous  Chris Trotter  and David Slack. Slack is also a blogger, columnist and radio and television pundit.  He is also white, middle class and kind  of liberal - although I would argue that supporting Labour and/or the Green's doesn't make you  a liberal anymore.

The discussion got round to Russel Norman's call for a police inquiry into the allegations  swirling around Peter Dunne.

I was interested. Here was an opportunity for a rare media discussion on how the comments of the Green co-leader were symptomatic of a party  that has been marching in a rightward direction for many years.

But of course to have that sort of discussion would require liberals fronting up to the reality that their  'progressive' parties are nothing of the sort. It would require admitting that, either intentionally or by default,  they support the neoliberal policies of both the Green's and Labour.

Slack wasn't inclined to have such a discussion and basically  excused Norman's comments on the grounds that he had had  a rush of  blood to the head. Hardly an incisive analysis. It was as bad as explaining Peter Dunne's behaviour  on the grounds that he was having a mid-life crisis.

Of course, a fruitful discussion could have occurred if Slack's nonsensical view was challenged.  But Trotter and Bradbury, two arch-apologists for the Green's and Labour, said absolutely nothing. No dissent was heard. 

What is the point of shows like Citizen A when they merely  ape the values and attitudes  of the mainstream media? Today Trotter was talking with Marcus  Lush on Radio Live  offering more corporate-friendly views that do nothing to promote progressive politics in this country. 

I expect left wing and radical views to be omitted from the mainstream media. But if Citizen A purports to be a credible alternative to mainstream media pap then it should be offering us alternative  views - not the same old dreary views we hear all the time in the mainstream media and often  from the same old talking heads. That's not going to happen with Martyn  'Progressive Bloc' Bradbury in charge so expect to see a whole lot more of Trotter and Slack in the future...that's if you can bother watching.