Watching last night’s Panorama program on the disappearance of four year-old Madeleine McCann, I became aware at least twice that the program makers were using, as a soundtrack , the haunting theme that composer Angelo Badalamenti produced for David Lynch’s television epic Twin Peaks.
Lynch’s series, as you may remember, deals with an FBI agent’s attempt to solve the murder of a young, blonde girl. On at least a subconscious level, Panorama appears to be linking these two crimes: even though one is fictional. The subtext is clear, and troubling.
Entertainment media techniques have been appropriated by the news media for some time now – viz Fox News as the ultimate example. But at least with Fox, you know what you’re getting (or you damn well ought to). I’m considerably more troubled by the dramatization of BBC News. For a long time, I’ve noticed the often obtrusive use of camera filters (or the electronic equivalent) to “sex up†a dull scene – to make the sky bluer, darker, or to give a more menacing feeling to the pictures generally. This is the equivalent of a newspaper manipulating news images by Photoshopping them – it’s fundamentally dishonest, because it is conveying an impression that is at odds with reality.
What Panorama is basically saying, with their sexed-up program last night is that there is little practical difference any more between news and entertainment. This makes me deeply uneasy. The disappearance of a little girl in Portugal has made voyeurs of us all, program-makers and viewers alike. Maybe we should pause to think where this direction will ultimately take us.
