The Siege Rob Sitch Analysis

In today’s society where all information is sold through the media, the truth is vulnerable to being manipulated to sell. Media outlets often think along the lines of truth being secondary to drama or success. Through the satirical episode of ‘The Siege’ from the show ‘frontline’ by Rob Sitch and the Simpson’s episode ‘Homer Badman’, the concept of the truth is explored that the media does not care about absolute truths and is fabricated and manipulated to sell stories.

In ‘The Siege’, Sitch uses satire to portray the fabrication of ruthlessness of the media in getting the shots and lines that they want in order to get a story, going as far as disregarding police and putting the children in a siege situation in danger. It shows that ratings …show more content…
In ‘Homer Badman’ Lisa points this out by saying ‘The media's making a monster out of you (Homer) because they don't care about the truth! All they care about is entertainment!’ Shown by the story being used for entertainment and drama on several TV shows like a talk show where a woman who's claimed to have ‘never met Homer Simpson, never had any contact with Homer Simpson’ broke down crying and the host says ‘ Your tears say more than real evidence ever could’. Similarly in ‘The Siege’ when Mike shows worries about ‘going too far’ he’s placated by how successful the news report was and again later he’s told to ‘look at the figures’ and that they were the highest the station has had in years. Also when the media found out about a helicopter disregarding the exclusion zone, Marty kept up a pretence of concern and ethics saying that ‘they crossed the line’ referring to the other reporter but juxtaposes this when finding out it is their own people in the air he shows his real lack of concern with saying ‘you beauty’, also the champagne bottle symbolises their obsession with ratings as a symbol of success as it comes out whenever