Part of the contract the the HMs sign is a waiver of their moral rights - essentially the right not be be misrepresented. This waiver allows Endemol the freedom to distort. You can bet the "celebrity" reality shows do not contain such a clause.

So, the question you have to ask yourself is "Why do the producers of BB need in writing from the housemates the right to misrepresent them?"

(The answer is not "for protection against innocent mistakes" - the same legal precautions that suffice for other shows would do.)

I tend to agree, I've seen lots of theories about why there would be a 'chosen one' but none have convinced me.

Having said that I'm open minded and prepared to change my mind.

Of course the editing can be seen as 'biased', but I don't think that that's necessarily due to producers favouring one hm over another. It's more likely due to what they think will make the programme more interesting. Obviously that may lead to one hm becoming more popular (or unpopular) than another, but that's not because a producer favours one hm or another.

But I don't really watch the live feed a lot, I just tend to watch BBLB and the highlight shows, so what do I know?

I'll try to have more of an eagle eye this year.

To call it bias is plain stupid. All the producers are trying to do is make the most entertaining show. Of course, this might lead them to spin things a little, and their idea of entertaining may not be the same as yours...

Are they trying to create entertainment out of altruism or is their motivation more financially influenced do you think?

What a silly question. Is either Endemol or Channel 4 a registered charity?

It wasn't that silly was it......it's rather relevant to the discussion in fact. I take by your answer it's not altruism then.....they're manipulating the show for financial gain...not to entertain the masses.

Because you can watch it live 24 hours of the day, it's not really possible for them to manipulate live footage. That's why they cannot be biased but they can sing footage to how they want it in edits of the show.

But there is still editing in the live feed. It isn't live, it's usally 10-20 mins behind, to allow for all the sound dips, and cutaways to nice pics of oven gloves etc! The only way to get the full picture of what goes on is to be in there!

Well...you can only watch what they show on the feed....which cuts the sound out, and the picture on many occassions...so in fact you can;t watch it 24 hours a day in anywhere near the detail needed to avoid manipulation.

Same thing. They're in the business of mass entertainment...

Entertainment is an indirect result of their main motivation....and either way it;s manipulation and not a true representation of events....

Jesus, you're paranoid!

The 10 minute edit though is supposedly quite strenuous and doesn't leave much time for editorial -just as it is.The Producer on duty has to decide which of two stories to show at any one time.They have different producers and editors on duty I'm sure.
I think when people allege "editing"bias they mean the Channel Four half hour has mysteriously left things out of the up to 48 hours of footage that they have.Each Channel 4 show is produced by a different person each day on some sort of rota so really if there is a "conspiracy"then everyone must be in it.I'm surprised after 5 series no underling has come forward and broken the story to the NOTW.Probably there is no story.
(NB I'm sure HM's don't get the full story as they only see and hear directly.We actually know more than they do in totality-ie Adele in BB3)

So? It would be easy for the different producers to all know what they're meant to be looking for. Arguments that it's not possible or that it's impractical just don't stand up.

The theory that viewers who have a live feed see the unvarnished truth is instantly destroyed by the fact that viewers can watch the very same footage and come to very different conclusions about what it reveals about the HMs or even about what occurred.

Naturally, eveyone believes that their own interpretation is correct, but they can't all be right.

It's not only leaving things out. It's also about the order in which things are shown, what's placed next to what, and what's said on BBLB and other shows.

The are meetings of the production staff, and a fairly consistent picture emerges across different shows during the week. And there have been newspaper artciles about the unreality of reality shows. That the C4 shows are edited with intent should not be controversial. Even Heat magazine talks of "characters" created by the people "behind the scenes".

The tabloids don't present it as a scandal because it's not really news and because it's not in their interest to do so. The tabloids and BB use each other.

The only question is how far it goes. Is the editing only to show entertaining clips, with no overall structure they're meant to be part of; or do the producers highlight story lines; or do they create story lines by the way they put things in sequence, etc; and so on.

It's obviously the editting that is the most obvious thing that shows bias but the thing from last year that I'd like changed is givng HM's things, most especially the seemingly endless supply of cigarrettes for Nadia.

I'd prefer no HM to be given things like that willy nilly, but if they had to do it, they should give everyone else something too. EG last year, they give Nadia cigaretees, then Shell et al get called in and have a small bottle of vodka each, or a few bars of chocolates, none of which can be shared.
That's only fair I think.

That's a different sort of bias, that's a bias of help within the house which is of more use to the HM's that biased editing at the time (although maybe not in the long run).

My point was it is a lot more effort to fix it by "editing"conspiracy than to just show what happens.What happens if someone provides no footage for their supposed role-producers stuffed.It makes no sense.(yes material is left out and single incidents may be omitted but over the period of days the characters build up remorselessly)

I thought the deprivation of addictive drugs was cruel in itself though?

He was right tho, he got crucified. :yawn:

Absolutely. When Nadia got her fags last year, I thought it would be fair to give all the HM's something that they missed...e.g...chocolate or alcohol. I got very cross about that as it did seem a bit unfair for only the smokers to get extra supplies as other people have addictions/vices too.

Yeah but they didn't want any more furniture inverted and us wheezers get arsey when we can't get our coffin nails...

Just showing what happens, when you have to compress 24 hours into less than one, is not easy. Doing it fairly would be harder than doing it in a biased way, based on assigning character types to housemates.

And why does it have to be a "conspiracy"? Surely everyone accepts that they edit, that it's not at random, and that there are meetings and other communication among the production staff.

They they wait, of the story changes.

No one claims that it's all artificial or completely made up.

OK I think we're both saying something similar and it's a question of emphasis as to how we view what they do.I believe they manage the stories as they emerge-maybe you think they manipulate them by "editing".As I said my view is easier for them.

I'm afraid after reading posts recently on this forum many people are saying exactly that.That there is a conspiracy to show some Hm's too well and others too badly.Usually involving particular favourites or dislikes.

The 'conspiracy' theory suggests that how a HM is presented is pre-ordained but there have been cases where HMs have been portrayed negatively to start with but subsequently been positively after the public (and then the tabloids) got behind them despite the 'spin'. The most obvious examples are Jon and Jade.

The producers are telling stories - but I don't believe for a moment those stories are written in stone...

Because some of the people on here are paranoid conspiracy freaks. Calm down chaps - they're just trying to entertain you...

But what are you saying that Horns - WHY WHY WHY!!! I think we all know the REAL answer to that...