Has it really been almost a year? Since
charity blackmailer Stephen "
did pigs evolve into whales to avoid drowning?" Green first appeared, as welcome as a turd in a swimming pool? If you haven't heard of the bloke before, start
here and then move on to
MediaWatchWatch, which was set up in response to his campaign.
I blogged about this a lot when it first kicked off - it even (woo!) got me in a
book - but now, one year on, any new kerfuffle inspires only weariness or, if an article is quoting Green, the sort of extreme visceral reaction that makes the forensics boys that clean up the aftermath wonder just how many genetically mutated crocodiles were involved in the attack.
So anyway, the manly Christian has managed to give Sainsbury's and Woolworths the willies by organising a mighty '10 - 20' complaints about these stores selling the DVD of
Jerry Springer: The Opera. Apparently assuming that this tiny group represented their entire consumer base, Woolworths
responded that "it is clear to us that our customers would prefer us not to stock this product," and
Sainsbury's said that the complaints should be regarded in the context that they rarely get complaints about DVDs. Which is quite encouraging, because if I can convince enough people to bleat to customer services I might be able to get The Day After Tomorrow off the shelves.
That we're even still talking about this is a testament to the obsessive nature of fundamentalists, the current climate of religious appeasement (where 'respect' = not drawing attention to or mocking the more hateful/ludicrous parts and 'offence' = the opposite), and Green's utter lack of anything better to do. Oh, the spineless gits at
Sainsbury's and
Woolworths bowing to the pressure of irate Christians in terrifying, double-figure numbers and the thought of a three-man protest outside 7 stores nationwide probably had something to do with it too.
Anyway, where the fundies have their shiny-eyed mania, bloggers have sheer bloodymindedness, and so despite the rising gorge and feral sneer that continually threaten to overwhelm as I contemplate writing about this topic
again, I've sent my letters to the massive corporations that got given the fear by a fringe group of loonies, and below some posts from the world of blog. Go and read, and if you feel the urge, join in the boycott.
Chicken Yoghurt: Putting the Fundament into FundamentalismBloggerheads: The Jerry Springer Saga ContinuesA good roundup of lots of blogging on the subject at
the BBC.
Harry's Place: Reinstate Jerry Springer