TV channels fined in drive to purge swearing and sex
US BROADCASTERS have been hit by record-breaking fines of almost $4 million by a federal TV standards watchdog which decrees that even casual use of the “s-word” or pixelated shots of a woman’s breasts “disturb the peace and quiet of the home”.
Wow…I had NO idea that my moral fiber was so very fragile and so terribly in need of protection. Thank the Good Lord for those brave souls at the Federal Communications Commission, who subject themselves to tasteless, prurient, and completely inappropriate programming so that I don’t have to. (Hmm…and how, exactly, does one go about getting a job at the FCC?)
Three years of rulings from the Federal Communications Commission, published in full this week, have alarmed the broadcasters which face competition from largely unregulated cable channels. They may now have to scrap live broadcasts, or return to 1970s-style censorship of scripts.
For a country which proudly defends its constitutional right to free speech, including the voracious appetite of many Americans for pornography, the watchdog’s decisions might appear surprising.
But the commission is now chaired by Kevin Martin, a Republican appointed by President Bush to crack down on the indecency that so shocks conservative sensibilities. “The number of complaints received by the commission has risen year after year, Mr Martin said. “I share the concerns of the public - and of parents, in particular.
Silly me; here I’d always thought that parents were the ones ultimately responsible for monitoring what programming their children are exposed to. And doesn’t a television come equipped with a handy device call an “OFF” button that can completely eliminate unwanted programming from your television set?
Isn’t this really just a way for Social Conservatives to exert yet more control and influence over us? Isn’t this just another form of censorship forced upon the American sheeple by the Religious Right? Yes, this may be a country that professes to value free speech and expression, but lemme tell ya, free ain’t quite what it used to be. Of course, without the FCC, we’d inundated in free speech. Yes, without those brave, selfless public servants at the FCC, we’d just be a pitiable collection of drooling porn and violence addicts, wouldn’t we?
And here’s something else I wonder about. If the sight of a woman’s pixellated breast is enough to “disturb the peace and quiet of the home, then wouldn’t you think that violence would have a similar effect? Why is it that Social Conservatives have so much difficulty with the depiction of varying degrees of sexuality, but violence seems to barely raise a ripple of concern? Oh, right; I keep forgetting…there’s a war on. How are we going to send our children off to war if we don’t anesthetize them to violence by exposing them to it?
