In The Simpsons we trust!

Image by Stefan Grange courtesy of Pixabay

It has been said that, if you want a good grounding in ethics, you should bypass the philosophers and go straight to Shakespeare because all the issues in moral philosophy are confronted somewhere in his canon.

It could be said similarly that if you want to understand why modern life is as it is, you should watch the full catalogue of The Simpsons. However, for today, I am going to confine myself to a single episode. Girly Edition is the 21st episode in the ninth series that made its debut on Fox in April 1998. As is normal in The Simpsons, the story itself is totally farfetched. But something you can’t possibly imagine happening in the real world can reveal a lot about what sometimes really does happen in that same world.

In this episode, Lisa and Bart become co-anchors of a new television programme, Kidz Newz, ostensibly intended to be “educational”. Anxious to ensure that he is not outshone by his smarter if less streetwise sister, Bart seeks guidance from the legendary television anchor, Kent Brockman, who advises:

Do you want to hear my award-winning secret? Human interest stories. They tug at the heart and fog the mind.

Bart goes all-in with a segment themed “Bart’s people”. In one outside broadcast, Bart is strolling, microphone in hand, through a room in the Veterans of Popular Wars Hall where grizzled veterans are wielding sewing needles:

Our forgotten veterans- Their guns are quiet now.

Their helmets lost or pawned.

And yet here they are, making flags out of old clothes.

Sure, they may not have the right number of stripes… and the colours are all wrong… and some purists will tell you… the American flag doesn’t contain the word “Jordache.” But you know, if they run this up the flagpole, I’ll salute!

I’m Bart Simpson.

The report is followed by a studio chat between the two co-anchors in which Bart tugs harder at his audience’s heartstrings.

Lisa: Thank you, Bart, for yet another touching Bart’s People. Now, turning to…

Bart: I just think our veterans deserve a little recognition.

Lisa: That’s what Veterans Day is for, Bart.

Bart: But is that really enough to honour our brave soldiers?

Lisa: They also have Memorial Day.

Bart: Oh, Lisa. Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re wrong. The important thing is veterans deserve a day… to honour them.

Lisa: [with irate emphasis] They have TWO.

Bart: Well, maybe they should have three. I’m Bart Simpson.

The clip is available on You Tube[i].

After the usual tightly scripted journey through twists, turns and subplots, Kidz Newz gets cancelled and replaced by a cartoon series shamelessly pushing the sale of sweets and toys.

On Sunday, 22 February, I tuned into the evening news on RTE television. RTE is Ireland’s national broadcaster. Deaths on the roads were the lead story.

There were seven road deaths over that weekend, the most recent of which was that of a girl aged 16 hit by a car in Navan.

As usual, the camera panned the accident scene cordoned off with tape, cones on the road, Gardai walking around looking serious. This was the opening voiceover:

There is a place missing at a dinner table tonight. An empty desk in a school tomorrow. And a family who have had their world turned upside down. In Navan today, locals were shaken.

That segues nicely into a brisk vox pop.

Man: It’s a pity, it’s a shame.

Woman: Just so sad, it really is. I have two children of my own and your heart really sinks when you hear something like that.

Second man: Really sad, very, very sad. 16-year old gone, just like that. It’s terrible, terrible.

Second woman: 16-year old. Her whole life ahead of her. It’s just devastating for her family.

Then back to the reporter to wind up.

The teenage girl was walking her dog on the Slane Road on Saturday. The dog was also killed while the vehicle failed to remain at the scene.

A clip of that report can be found on the RTE website[ii].

The most recent Royal Charter for the BBC was promulgated in 2016 and remains in force until the end of 2027. The longstanding mission of the organisation is restated in the Charter.

The Mission of the BBC is to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain.

The role of the organisation in the delivery of “news” is set out as the first of its assigned “purposes” as follows:

To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them: the BBC should provide duly accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming to build people’s understanding of all parts of the United Kingdom and of the wider world. Its content should be provided to the highest editorial standards. It should offer a range and depth of analysis and content not widely available from other United Kingdom news providers, using the highest calibre presenters and journalists, and championing freedom of expression, so that all audiences can engage fully with major local, regional, national, United Kingdom and global issues and participate in the democratic process, at all levels, as active and informed citizens.

That Mission and that Purpose strike me as good templates for any true public service broadcaster. I am not going to comment on how well the BBC complies with either of them — because I watch or listen to BBC domestic news programmes only rarely. However, BBC World Service documentaries achieve a consistently high standard.

RTE articulates its purpose and mission more pithily — and therefore more loosely:

Purpose

Our purpose is to serve as an independent source of stories, news, information and entertainment for Ireland, reflecting the diversity of its people and providing experiences that enrich the lives of all.

Mission To enrich Irish life with content that challenges, educates and entertains.[[iii]](#_edn3)

I don’t watch or listen to RTE news and current affairs broadcasting very much either. From what I have seen and heard though, I would accept that the news report about the road death in Navan is unusual — more a parody of a news report than an actual one.

But it is an outlier only by being more extreme in degree rather than categorically different from RTE news and current affairs output generally nowadays.

Among the triad of informing, educating and entertaining, RTE prioritises the last above all else.

Established as the national broadcaster over half a century ago, RTE was once the country’s cheerleader when smiles were appropriate and chief mourner when tears were, but without compromising its status as an authoritative and sober purveyor of news. It could take for granted that we were watching and listening — but treated its audience with respect and dignity nonetheless.

However, since it lost its broadcasting monopoly and is having to operate in a much more crowded, competitive, clamorous and coarse media environment generally, there is no depth of mawkish sentimentality to which RTE will not sink to bid for our ears and eyeballs — daring us to stand back from the collective hug it is seeking to generate whether it is one prompted by sadness or by joy.

It makes Bart Simpson seem serious as well as sincere.

[i] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIaTuchm6_k

[ii] https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2026/0222/1559758-ireland-rtc/

[iii] https://about.rte.ie/inside-rte-2/mission-values/