Children's TV is Toxic?

The Guardian reports on tirade about the state of programming for children on television from critically-acclaimed writer Philip Pullman. Pullman is the author of many children's books, including the Dark Materials trilogy, which are being filmed.

Pullman castigated broadcasters for sacrificing high-quality programmes in favour of those that yield more marketing opportunities. 'Children are regarded by broadcasters as a marketing opportunity at best, a dangerous and feral threat at worst, and an expensive nuisance otherwise,' Pullman said. 'This social poison goes much deeper than broadcasting, of course, but it's particularly visible there. ...

Pullman went on to say that fiction loses its value unless it 'tackles the great moral dilemmas of our time'. 'Fantasy, and fiction in general, is failing to do what it might be doing,' he said. 'It has unlimited potential to explore all sorts of metaphysical and moral questions, but it is not doing that.

'You can't leave morality out unless your work is so stupid and trivial and so worthless that nobody would want to read it anyway.