Dr Mumbo

How do you send a message to the mainstream media?

Eschewing traditional feedback options like letter writing or calling talkback radio stations, a Facebook group of 23,000 individuals, led by a former reality TV contestant, have filmed themselves destroying their ‘tell-a-visions’ (do you see what they did there?) in a bid to send a message to mainstream media.

You might wonder how the self-titled ‘99%’ think destroying items from their own homes will impact media companies – Dr Mumbo has certainly asked himself that question – but it makes for some entertaining viewing in the meantime.

The group were rallied by former Family Food Fight contestant Fanos who provided a script for the videos and was the first to say ‘no longer will we be programmed’ by slamming his TV on the pavement. Dr Mumbo wonders if the participants in the challenge are aware that television provides more content than just mainstream news and how they plan to fill their nights in self-isolation without the warm glow of the idiot box to bask in.

It isn’t particularly clear what the main focus of the group is. They seem to equally believe the COVID-19 pandemic is a sham, while also being frustrated by the government’s self-isolation restrictions, unhappy with the offering of the COVIDSafe app and somehow most annoyed by traditional media’s role in all of this. One man calls for politicians to go to jail over ‘this’, which he highlights by tearing a newspaper in two. Fearsome stuff.

For more coverage on this confusing, yet captivating, movement, satirist Tom Tanuki has provided a comprehensive wrapup of the videos, including a scandalous reveal that one of the 99% faked their TV smashing.

Faking a broken TV to send a message about mainstream media’s reliance on fake news? This all just got a little too meta for Dr Mumbo, he’ll stick to writing snarky letters to editors.

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