Madam, - Your columnist Marie Murray is to be commended for her courageous stand against "reality TV", which she rightly labels "Peeping Tom TV" ( Opinion & Analysis, January 19th). As a clinical psychologist, she sees through the self-promoting marketing of the TV programmers, and challenges us all to reflect on where we are going in relation to the downward spiral of accepted decency and ethical standards.
It is reported in your paper that a British cabinet minister "urged the British public to evict Jade Goody from the Celebrity Big Brother house". He made the wrong call: he ought to have demanded that his government take action to stop the degrading programme altogether. But that would have required courage and leadership in challenging the power of the media moguls.
"Reality TV" seeks to pander to the prurient side of our nature, using a quite artificial setting in which "celebrities" are induced to display their banality and worse, in order to satisfy the "Peeping Tom" weaknesses of viewers, who are unwittingly seduced into participating in the crass spectacle.
I support Marie Murray's call for our community in Ireland to insist on certain minimum standards of ethics from the media, some sections of which are interested only in increased audience ratings. We could start by collectively giving the "thumbs-down" to "unreality TV". - Yours, etc,
MUREDACH DYNAN, Emeritus Professor of Education, Newry, Co Down.