Channel 4 wanted to be seen to be doing the right thing, having had its bottom smacked so resoundingly by Ofcom over the "race row" between Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty. The British tabloids, Big Brother's little papers, enjoyed the whole thing no end.

But the main victors in this farcical skirmish are corporate: C4, obviously, which will continue to attract BB viewers despite losing credibility, and sponsor Virgin Media. A gleeful Virgin spokesman said the company was "delighted" at C4's swift action. "We are continuing with our sponsorship and will work closely with Channel 4 going forward, " he said. No surprise there, considering Virgin Media landed itself in that day's papers without having to pay.

Your correspondent is possibly one of the few people who isn't an expert onBig Brother, having never seen it at all until the last series (this is not down to high-mindedness - merely the absence of C4). The sight of spittle spraying from the mouth of hellhound Jade Goody was affecting, though.

Her antagonist, Shetty, happened to have darker skin, but more tellingly she was luckier, prettier and more serene. Only a saint doesn't sometimes feel resentful towards those who are luckier, prettier and more serene. And isn't this supposed to be reality television?

Meanwhile, they also decided this week to hose Isaiah Washington from the medical drama, Grey's Anatomy. Readers who have not fallen victim to the stream of weekly US faux realist shows-withvoiceover will not be aware that Washington plays the only charismatic character of the series. He is Dr Preston Burke - a statuesque, mesmerising specimen of humanity known to some viewers (well, one at least) as the black fox.

Washington called fellow actor TR Knight a "faggot" on set - not on air, mind, but on set. First Washington had to apologise; then he had to agree to have counselling; then he had to book himself into a residential clinic for assessment.

(Seemingly, they have clinics in the US that can cure you of disagreeable sentiments. ) Now, having surrendered his backbone, Washington has lost his job anyway.

People have been wringing their hands over the 'evils' of TV for so many decades that those in charge have concluded that we all want television that is censored, neutered, toothless, utopian. Children's television;

that's what we're going to end up with, where the presenters bob about, simpering.

There's nothing at all realistic about suggesting that noone says 'nigger' or 'faggot', or 'knacker' or 'towelhead'. Hearing people use these terms is hardly instructive, it's true, but pretending people don't use them is just childish.

Arguably the most sinister characteristic of TV is not that it shows people being rude or thoughtless or foul-mouthed, it's that it bombards us with advertising. What TV stations are interested in doing, more than educating or entertaining, is making receptive human brains available to advertisers.

You can read this entire newspaper today without so much as glancing at the ads.

But in broadcasting, the 'consumer' (and that despicable word is the one they use for us) has no choice. All the channels schedule their ad breaks at the same time, so you can't escape by flipping.

And now that some forms of TV distribution enable viewers to fast-forward through the ads, advertisers are looking for other ways to force us to watch. It was one thing when television was free; now you have to pay for it and be subjected to endless marketing.

Because of its immediacy, television can present images of things as they are, as they happen - unfiltered, sometimes unpleasant. And with more and more people getting access to it, thanks to citizen journalism, it has a chance to become more egalitarian and more complex - possibly less sophisticated, but also certainly less pointlessly sanitary.

But not until we boot the corporations out of it.