{"id":32342,"date":"2025-02-04T06:20:25","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T06:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/04\/channel-4s-go-back-to-where-you-came-from-is-shocking-im-glad-it-was-made-gareth-benest\/"},"modified":"2025-02-04T06:20:25","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T06:20:25","slug":"channel-4s-go-back-to-where-you-came-from-is-shocking-im-glad-it-was-made-gareth-benest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/04\/channel-4s-go-back-to-where-you-came-from-is-shocking-im-glad-it-was-made-gareth-benest\/","title":{"rendered":"Channel 4&#8217;s Go Back to Where You Came From is shocking. I\u2019m glad it was made | Gareth Benest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The backlash to the reality series misses a key point: if this was an educational documentary, would anyone watch it?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Gareth Benest is advocacy director for the charity International Broadcasting Trust<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Channel 4\u2019s new reality series Go Back to Where You Came From may not please either side of the debate around refugees and irregular migration, but I\u2019m very glad it was made. From its title onwards, the series doesn\u2019t treat its subject matter with the sensitivity that many would hope for. The first episode opens with a participant saying, as he looks out over the white cliffs of Dover: \u201cWhat I\u2019d do is, I\u2019d set landmines up, and then any boat that comes within 50m of this beach, they\u2019d get blown up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Add to that the spectacle of Brits trundling through a war-torn city in armoured cars repeatedly describing it as a \u201cshithole\u201d, and you have enough toxic bigotry to send my blood pressure soaring. But the point of the programme isn\u2019t to platform extreme views: it\u2019s to force those spouting them to face the reality of irregular migration and to challenge their preconceptions.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2025\/feb\/04\/channel-4-go-back-to-where-you-came-from-migration\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The backlash to the reality series misses a key point: if this was an educational documentary, would anyone watch it? Gareth Benest is advocacy director for the charity International Broadcasting Trust Channel 4\u2019s new reality series Go Back to Where You Came From may not please either side of the debate around refugees and irregular &#8230; <a title=\"Channel 4&#8217;s Go Back to Where You Came From is shocking. I\u2019m glad it was made | Gareth Benest\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/04\/channel-4s-go-back-to-where-you-came-from-is-shocking-im-glad-it-was-made-gareth-benest\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Channel 4&#8217;s Go Back to Where You Came From is shocking. I\u2019m glad it was made | Gareth Benest\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}