"guardian" columnist ros coward wrote at the end of july 2001: "what's so dishonest about channel 4's defence of "brass eye" as a satire of media forms is the implication that they (and the liberal left in general) have a better truth than the tabloids. they don't. ... [i]t suggests concern about sex abuse is exaggerated and that victims' shame and humiliation doesn't matter. that's why there were so many complaints."