http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/04/16/004046.php
Could someone please show me a kid over the age of 7 that doesn't know the word Fu*k, or the word Sh*t? They not only know the word, they know what it means and they know how to spell it (and it's not [EMAIL PROTECTED] either). If you try to tell me that any 2nd grader doesn't know these words, I'd say without a doubt, you don't know your kids. They may be afraid to use them in front of you, but if they haven't heard you use them under your breath, they've heard it on the school bus or even used it on the playground! The majority of homes today have cable, which means that if you don't think that they haven't seen a bare breast, or heard a bad word on HBO, or Cinemax by now, you're fooling yourself! If you think you're safe because you've programmed your TV's V-chip so they can't watch it; you're in for a shock, because they probably learned how to override it faster than they mastered which button to push on the remote! So, of course, the briefest flash of Janet Jackson's breast (which you had to do a stop-action pause to even see) earned CBS a $550,000 fine! Shows like Without a Trace are being fined outrageous fines of $3.6 million for suggestive scenes! Now the FCC comes along with even more big fines for the major networks for words inadvertently not bleeped during live broadcasts, or something that was said on NYPD Blue three years ago! I remember a time when there were only three available channels to chose from, ABC, CBS, and NBC. The uproar over something Archie Bunker said, or the Smothers Brothers being driven off the air for being too political, or the gasps at Cher wearing those skin-tight gowns on the Sonny & Cher Show, look absolutely tame by comparison to today's shows. Howard Stern went to satellite radio and now his show is incredible, compared to when everything was censored and bleeped beyond making sense. Why? The answer is because if you pay for something to be piped into your home, the FCC can't regulate it. I'm amazed that Sex in the City has actually made it to broadcast TV reasonably intact. Can you imagine an outstanding, popular and award winning show like The Sopranos trying to make it over on CBS? It'd only be a half an hour long, and make no sense with all the things that'd have to be cut out of it! A fellow named L. Brent Bozell, president of the Parents Television Council, has found that if he can encourage only a few people to put in complaints to the FCC, he can command the power to decide what does and doesn't go on television. It's clear to me that the solution is simple. The networks should flee to cable, something that most of us have anyway, and such great shows like CSI, Lost, Survivor, and Law and Order would be twice as good, three times as gritty, and a dozen times more realistic. Will and Grace's great comedy situations wouldn't have died and become completely sanitized after their 3rd season because of indecency complaints. If the networks were free of the FCC, comedy shows in general might actually be as funny as The Cosby Show used to be without fear of being fined hundreds of thousands of dollars because someone from an American Family Association was offended. Forget Roseanne's gay boss, can you imagine what they would've done to Roseanne if they were in charge of editing to pieces the great episode concerning Darlene's first period, or the hilarious scene when Roseanne tried to explain the facts of life to her daughters? Does anyone still wonder why DVD collections of shows from the 70s and the 80s are flying off the shelf? Could it be because nothing about today's shows with their lame jokes and canned laughter (so you know when someone was funny) even compares?? Right now because of the power and stranglehold of such ignorant people as the AFA and the PTC, the networks may be forced back to a time when Lucy Ricardo couldn't say the word "pregnant" on network television, Rob and Laura Petrie had to sleep in separate beds, and it was considered obscene for Barbara Eden to show her bellybutton while wearing her harem costume on I Dream of Jeanie. It's my opinion that the networks should flee to cable now. It's time for the Brent Bozells of the world to gasp and shudder, and program their little TVs so they can only get broadcasts of Lassie, The 700 Club, Leave It to Beaver and maybe an occasional rerun of Davey & Goliath, and then maybe leave the rest of us alone. But of course that's only my opinion. Gregory S. Williams [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
