L. Brent Bozell: Fascist
Today, while flipping through the channels, I came across Joe Pantoliano (one of my favorite actors) on C-SPAN, and decided to watch for about 20 minutes to see what he was on for. He was a guest of the Senate Sub-Commitee for Commerce, Transportation and Yada-Yada-Yada. As I watched, the Sub-Commitee was discussing putting in place either a universal ratings system, or completely censor not only broadcast (which can legally be censored due to the fact that the government owns the air through which the signals travel) but also cable and satellite programming. Nevermind the fact that the censorship of content produced outside the government and transmitted through private means (the cable companies own the cables and satellites) is outrageously illegal, I was completely awestruck by what a person named L. Brent Bozell (nephew of prominent conservative William F. Buckley) had to say. This man not only claims that shows like South Park are useless and shouldn't be made, but claims that if TVs are fitted with a V-Chip (which I am indifferent to, considering that the consumer has the power to turn them off) content will only get worse, and he wants the power to shut South Park, Nip/Tuck, and other "offensive" shows down. In addition, a despicable man named David G. Kinney has developed a ratings system that assigns a numerical value to any indecent thing on television. For example, on a scale of 1-10, "fuck" will get a 9. But if "fuck" is used towards a child or from a child, it recieves a 10. He said that his ultimate goal is to index every piece of media ever created and assign them total numerical values that measure their indecency. I don't even have to explain why this could possibly be one of the worst ideas of all time, but Saving Private Ryan would be blocked, as would many other pieces of creativity that have been critically acclaimed. I can't explain how absolutely despicable it is for Congress and right wing activists to be advocating censorship of private creative works, but I would urge everyone to pay attention to this situation regarding decency and make sure that the neo-puritans don't go too far.
Stats on the Parents Television Council
-"Mediaweek reported in December of 2004 that 99.8% of 240,000 complaints made to the FCC complaining about indecency in 2003 originated from the Parents Television Council." - http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Parents_Television_Council
-"PTC is primarily responsible for the over 1,500 percent increase in complaints since 2002 (~14,000 complaints) and the increase of over 65,000 percent since 2001 (~350 complaints)." - http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Parents_Television_Council
It would seem to me that this group is nothing more than a bunch of bitchy parents complaining, but that's just me.
Stats on the Parents Television Council
-"Mediaweek reported in December of 2004 that 99.8% of 240,000 complaints made to the FCC complaining about indecency in 2003 originated from the Parents Television Council." - http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Parents_Television_Council
-"PTC is primarily responsible for the over 1,500 percent increase in complaints since 2002 (~14,000 complaints) and the increase of over 65,000 percent since 2001 (~350 complaints)." - http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Parents_Television_Council
It would seem to me that this group is nothing more than a bunch of bitchy parents complaining, but that's just me.