Knee-jerk reaction is no way to police the media industry.(Brief Article)(Editorial)

Never again will the sight of an S&M madame lovingly scrubbing the testicles of a client with a cheese grater hold the same magnetism for me than when I first saw it on a Channel 4 fetish night.

Over the years Channel 4 has successfully denuded many such previously taboo subjects of their shock-value. And the channel has been aided in its mission by the enormous amounts of free publicity it has received from other media that consider it their duty to highlight the evils of Channel 4's programming.

So the furore over the Brass Eye special on the media's treatment of paedophilia is certainly not unexpected, and nor is the army of complaints it has sparked. In fact, even before the programme was screened last Thursday there was plenty of pre-publicity from outraged newspapers, guaranteeing the show a higher audience than it might otherwise expect.

Your views on the programme itself (and if you didn't see it, I don't believe you're qualified to comment) will inevitably be very personal ones and, given the emotive nature of the subject matter, probably very strong ones.

I don't want to get into a debate about the content (I confess I switched off before the end because, despite generally being a firm supporter of all that's tasteless and indecent, I found it too uncomfortable to watch), but I do think the Government's appallingly ill thought-out reaction deserves an ...