27 November 2008

Question for John Campbell

I emailed Campbell Live a variation of the following:
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The lead story in Campbell Live tonight was about the annoying, unpleasant, but essentially obvious and uninteresting fact that sometimes dodgy stuff gets in our food.

Someone found some pre-maggot stage fly eggs in their Tegal chicken. The expert the show spoke to all but acknowledged it was virtually impossible to stop the occasional fly egg from getting where it shouldn't, and in this case the eggs were harmless even had they not been detected. There was no suggestion of a systemic problem.

The next person found a blow fly on his Pizza Hut hot and spicy. Again, it was acknowledged that this would have been difficult to prevent, and it wasn't the fault of Pizza Hut that the fly got in to the oven just at the moment it must have. It was a poor job it wasn't picked up, but Pizza Hut apologised and attempted to make amends.

Both situations would have been very unpleasant for me too, and I don't blame the people concerned for being put off those foods for a while at least. But you'd be kidding yourself if you think that this doesn't happen occasionally, including with other brands.

This is my question to John Campbell: Why was this lead story material? This shouldn't have been a lead story on Fair Go, a show which specialises in this kind of thing. There's nothing about these particular instances that warranted that treatment on a supposedly leading, prime time current affairs show. Is this even 'current affairs' at all? Is the so called 'silly season' coming early? Or has Campbell Live always been this inane, and I just haven't noticed?
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To date, I have not received a reply. Quelle surprise.