Tony Klinger

Jade Goody is the Z list celebrity who was just given the news that she has possibly terminal cancer, live on Indian TV’s version of Celebrity Big Brother. It was the cruelest, most vile and despicable thing ever broadcast.

Jade, who is 27, had first become famous in the UK after appearing on the Channel 4 reality show Big Brother in 2002. She went on to become a household name through media coverage, her television programs and the launch of her own products. It seems as if she was loved by the common people. This was soon to turn into hate and ridicule.

This transformation began when she appeared on Big Brother 3. Goody and was a target of ridicule in the British tabloid press for her frightening  level of ignorance. Goody thought that the English city of Cambridge was in London. On being told that Cambridge is in East Anglia, she assumed that this was overseas.

Last year Jade appeared on Britain’s own Celebrity Big Brother television show and was roundly condemned for her apparently racist and bullying behavior towards the Indian film star, Shilpa Shetty . Jade was evicted from the show and universally condemned for her stupidity and racism. Her career lay in tatters as a direct result. It didn’t matter how much she apologized, or how genuine her self-abasement has been. No one in show business in the UK would touch Goody again.

The call to appear on the Indian television show must have appeared like a heaven sent opportunity to earn some money and redeem her reputation for Jade. Apparently, before appearing on  Indian TV Ms. Goody had undergone her insurance health screening and been informed that this had shown she might have something wrong with her, but the actual, devastating news of her cancer was given to her on a phone link up, live on air.

The Indian television show producers excused their actions by stating that Jade Goody had given permission for them to air this and therefore it was OK for them to do so. Shame on them for taking advantage of Jade who is clearly not equipped emotionally or intellectually to defend her best interests.

Jade is not a bright woman, and the temptation for her to appear on the show in India, for a reported $100,000 must have been too big a temptation to resist. To watch her disintegration on the news broadcast was demeaning to us all, broadcasters and viewers alike.

Jade left India to return to the UK for immediate medical treatment and all we can hope for is her speedy and complete recovery. While that happens perhaps the television broadcasters around the world can organize a search for their morals and ethics, which they appear to have lost without trace.

Whatever Jade had done in the past, however stupid she might well be, no one deserves to be treated like this. The television station in India has behaved with appallingly bad taste and demonstrated a total lack of sensitivity and judgment. Will broadcasters stoop to anything to increase their ratings, is there no level of depravity too deep for them?