What are Ofcom Doing? A Great British Shrug
The Trawl
Jemma Forte & Marina Purkiss
4.7 • 867 Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2026
⏱️ 33 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
In this Trawl, Jemma and Marina coin a new state of being (“fucktioning”) before diving headfirst into a world that feels increasingly unhinged.
From a tribute to Married At First Sight expert Mel Schilling, to the unbearable reality of injustice in Gaza and a horrific story about a little baby boy who was tortured by members of the IDF, the emotional whiplash is real. There’s rage, grief and a necessary pause to cling onto moments of good, because honestly, what’s the alternative?
Meanwhile, in The New World, Alan Rusbridger dissects how Ofcom has become slow, cautious and dangerously easy to outmanoeuvre while broadcasters push further into partisan territory without consequence. Jemma and Marina wonder, if the rules exist but no one enforces them… are they rules at all?
Add in political grifters, media double standards, and a system that increasingly looks like it’s shrugging rather than safeguarding and you’re left with a question.
Is this incompetence… or quiet permission?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When it's fiction, you understand and you side with the resistance. |
| 0:04.0 | Yet when it's happening to you in real life, right now, you're afraid to resist in real life. |
| 0:11.0 | Pshh, blows my mind. Hello and welcome to The Trawl where we dive into the chaos so you don't have to. |
| 0:28.7 | Although frankly, at this point, ignorance might be the healthier option because the headlines read like satire. |
| 0:34.9 | I'm Gemma Forte. |
| 0:35.8 | And I'm Marina Perkis and and over here at The Trall, |
| 0:39.3 | we love learning new vocabulary. So I was very pleased when I stumbled upon this post by |
| 0:45.5 | AI by diva, which features a new word for the day, which I think perfectly describes my current |
| 0:53.7 | state. |
| 0:54.6 | The word of the day is barely functioning, |
| 0:57.6 | someone who is technically awake, physically present, |
| 1:00.2 | but emotionally hanging on by a thread. |
| 1:02.7 | There you go. |
| 1:03.7 | That is, that is literally Marina. |
| 1:08.7 | It's been a week. |
| 1:10.1 | We had to have a little back talk. I was like, right, okay. Come on. We both came to the mic a little bit of a little pet talk i was like right okay come on we both came to the mic a little |
| 1:14.0 | bit a little bit of what should we say what word should we go with barely functioning yeah that's it |
| 1:19.5 | barely barely functioning right all is well trawlers all is well and we're going to have a really |
| 1:25.3 | interesting episode looking a little bit at sort of |
| 1:28.2 | offcom and some of the stuff that GB News gets away with a very interesting expose |
| 1:33.1 | written by Alan Rushbridgeer. But first, I am insisting that we just give a very brief mention |
| 1:39.5 | to some sad news that really got me. You probably know that very strange, here we are on our politics podcast, and sometimes I'll mention in passing that I love a bit of maths, but I'm married at first sight. Many of you disapprove. I've even had the odd email. I've even had the odd email going, I'm disappointed, I thought you were clever. I'm like, uh... That's so ridiculous. What, you're supposed to just be academic and political all the time? That's unsustainable. I didn't take much notice. I was just like, yeah, whatever. Yeah, I mean, it is possible. It is possible, trawlers, to be obsessed with politics and many other things, but still watch Married at first sight. You know, if a girl can't switch off from the greed and |
... |
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