Joe McElderry is still being depicted on TMi's Hedz as the person Cheryl most wants to avoid. And other X Factor stars such as Olly Murs, Alexandra Burke and JLS are getting a lot more media attention than Joe, although he did appear on on 3 December singing his new single, which subsequently debuted at number 68 in the charts.
Whilst lesbian and gay characters are non-existent on CBBC dramas, the channel sometimes touches on same-sex affections - but you can be pretty sure that such references will be in a mocking or facetious manner. For example (2 December 2010) Hacker Dog has a huge crush on Ore from Newsround:
Iain Stirling: Hacker, what's the matter with you man?
(romantic music begins)
Hacker: What d'you mean "what's the matter?" (Hacker kisses the picture of Ore)
Iain: It's not good. There's something different about you
Hacker: Oh Iain - it's Ore. I just LOVE him. He's such a wonderful man. He's a hero to me. (Hacker kisses Ore's portrait twice more, loudly)
Eventually we discover exactly why Hacker is so enamoured of Ore. It's because of Ore's penchant for sandwiches.
It would be wrong to imply that CBBC doesn't mock opposite-sex romantic relationships as well. But there is a significant difference in that it acknowledges opposite sex romance as a phenomenon of real life ...
(studio chat following Ricky's report on Thurs 9 Dec 2010)
Ricky: And d'you know what else I found out?
Ore: What?
Ricky: Harry from One Direction fancies Frankie from The Saturdays ...
Ore: Really?
Ricky: .. He really really yeah properly fancies her.
Ore: Get in line Harry, alright. I think I'm next up.
Bet CBBC Newsround wouldn't have been so forthcoming if Harry had said he fancied someone from a boyband. So I'm trying to find out exactly what is CBBC's policy on inclusiveness, because so far there's no level playing field and the channel is completely failing to tackle the causes of homophobia and homophobic bullying.
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