According to Ofcom's website, the media regulator has clocked up 3,885 complaints about Dannii's supposed 'banter' with Danyl that was suggestive of media speculation about his sexuality.
Now a media storm is brewing over this 'outrage' but is this a justified outpouring and analysis of inappropriate broadcast comment or is it just another example of the media playing with itself to generate a story?
It highlights the risks in taking what might have seemed innocent 'banter' off-screen and following it through on-screen but why should an interaction and comment that seems acceptable off-screen become so offensive on-screen? - because the same tabloids that speculated over Danyl now decide an innuendo based on that same speculation is 'out of order'. Better still they can pay Danyl to sell his story and pillory Dannii. It is indeed a tangled web the media weaves but the sad fact is that all that is going on here is creating a story that trades off X Factor prominence and viewing figures, plays on the characters and spins into a print press story that has minimal substance yet still manages (as the complaint numbers to Ofcom prove) to generate appeal.
So in a week where one of the country's leading media law firms has tried to suppress reporting of proceedings in Parliament we're busy generating a story about a reality show judge teasing a contestant about lyrics in a song. It's time to have some serious debate around what we want from our media and separate the important issues that impact society from the vacuuous that may drive sales and keep shareholders happy but ultimately distract the public and media regulators from the more important issues they should be addressing.
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