Interestingly the very political party that seeks smaller government and wants the media deregulated is still responding rather hysterically to the national trauma caused by the Janet Jackson Breast Incident at the Superbowl:
As part of that continuing crackdown, the Senate on Tuesday attached a "decency" provision as a rider to its annual defense bill. The measure would increase penalties tenfold for radio and TV broadcasters that violate federal indecency rules. Approved 99 to 1, the bill would allow the Federal Communications Commission to raise fines from a maximum of $27,500 to $275,000 per violation, up to $3 million a day per broadcaster.
Give me a break. So it's still not indecent that our media feeds us a sack of lies dictated by the Liar in Chief, but god forbid someone utters a foul word or bares a disgusting part of the anatomy on the TV. No one cares that the media spin on the lead up to the invasion of Iraq was indecent?
This LA Times article proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Republicans in the house are held hostage by their own bratty spawn:
Called the Family Movie Act, the bill awaits action in the Judiciary Committee, where it has won an endorsement from the influential chairman of the panel, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R.-Wis.). No comparable bill has been introduced in the Senate.
The legislation was introduced in response to a fight being waged in federal court in Colorado by the studios, the Directors Guild of America and 16 prominent directors against ClearPlay Inc., a Utah company that sells filtering software and DVD players with special filtering features built in.
Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, told a congressional committee last week that such editing without the input of the directors and studios "disfigures the original vision of the creator."
Oh who cares? If people are so hung up on what's offensive, then screw them if they miss the point of the movie because of their electronic devices. oy.
Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-North Hollywood) mustered a different argument against the legislation, saying it would send the wrong message to parents. "Technology should not become an excuse for avoiding the hard work of parenting," he said.
Well yeah. Movies have ratings. Use them. When I was a kid, we had to check the Long Island Catholic for the official Catholic position on a movie before we were allowed to go an see it. Good rating, ok. Bad rating, no. End of story.
But Rep. Lamar S. Smith (R-Texas), the bill's chief sponsor, suggested that Berman's position didn't reflect the challenges facing households in which kids are constantly being bombarded by the media.
"It's unrealistic and impractical to expect parents to monitor their children's video habits 24 hours a day," Smith said. "They need help."
Well
The studios and the Directors Guild contend that Smith's bill, by removing dialogue and scenes, can ruin entire films.
I have earned the right at my age to watch filth and listen to swear words. And goddammit, I don't want my movies, that I pay for, filtered because some parents who can't take the time to raise their children properly won't do their jobs. Screw them.
Some poor excuse for a liberal I am. I raised a good kid. He watched mommy approved shows, listened to mommy approved music and watched mommy approved videos. If he didn't want to watch or listen, then we had books and Legos. We had parks, playgrounds, the beach, the backyard. All mommy approved. Sure it was work, but so was making sure that his homework was completed, that he was eating properly, that we made it to church on Sunday, took Karate, joined the Scouts, visited the grandparents, etc.
Speaking of the unmitigated gall by these right wing hypocritical pieces of shit, I could not turn on the evening news in my kitchen during most of Clinton's presidency because of Ken Starr. That pervert and his investigation of Clinton's private activities with a consenting adult permeated the airwaves. Every other word out of the nightly newscasters was "oral sex". I had a pre-teen at home at the time. We watched the Simpsons instead of the news for years.
For god's sake, I didn't hear anyone complaining about how the news was hijacked by the soft core porn industry starring the President of the United States. Hell no! Why? Because the wingnuts enjoyed that sort of porn so that they could be self-righteously indignant and feign disgust. Reminds me of when I was in my all girls Catholic HS and someone would bring a Playboy to school and we'd be reading it and saying things like "Eeeeeewwwwwwww" and "Disgusting!" yet not wanting the girl who brought it to turn the pages too fast.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) has not taken a position on the House bill. But he hinted that it might be best for both sides to forge some sort of compromise. "The fastest and surest way to protect and promote family-friendly viewing rights," he said, "is for artists and consumers to negotiate a mutually acceptable resolution."
No Mr Hatch. No compromise. Tell your lazy pathetic excuses for parents in your constituency that not all art is appropriate for all audiences. If a film has questionable material, then easily offended families should be turned off by the ratings and the review. End of story.
Nowhere is it written that every work of art, be it a film or a painting or a musical composition must be family-friendly.
Consumers have a role to play too. The laws of supply and demand dictate that if there is no demand for something it will go away. If it's still around even though you don't buy it, obviously others are buying it. You still don't have to. Free country. remember?
Are the wingnuts turning commie or what? Who would have thought that the right wing would want their morals legislated and entertainment censored yet I, the flaming liberal, don't need mine legislated or censored because I know the difference between right and wrong and so does my son.
UPDATE: Morford: Who Will Save The Children?! Aww, heck. The FCC says curse words now cost $500,000! And your child might just hear one, and explode!
UPDATE AGAIN: Benito Musolini, widely regarded as the founder of modern fascism, claimed; "Fascism should properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." By deregulating the media, the corporations who support the Bush administration are also in charge of what we see and hear on the airwaves.
Why the music sucks so very much: In 1996, the FCC ruled for deregulation removing the cap on how many radio stations a corporation is allowed to own. Today, Clear Channel has grown to over 1200 radio stations and has more than 50% of the radio market in the US. Deregulation has turned more than 50% of the US radio stations into a propaganda annointment utensil. Look at the crap that is being spoon fed to your kids over Clear Channel radio! Britney? Give me a break. We tried to put on a music festival here on LI and it was stopped by you guessed it, Clear Channel. They own it all.. all the trash, all the crap. The CEO of Clear Channel, L. Lowery Mays, is a very good friend and one of the largest contributors to George W Bush.
Independent artists used to be heard on the radio. New artists would break with a new sound... Now, nothing but the same old crap, artists in the same mold, same damn beat... all corporate crap. So when you're bitching about the disgraceful music videos and the way your daughters are dressing.. just know that one of the 6 huge corporations plus Clearchannel that owns all the media and your government are behind it. That's fascist. Quit blaming the liberals. Your republican house and senate approved of this nightmare.
And one more quick rant... the reason people are file sharing is because the music is so shitty, no one wants to buy it. There may be one good song on a whole album, if that. Why buy the whole thing? I don't blame kids for dissing the industry. The industry is insulting their intelligence. When I buy music, I buy it from independent labels and artists.
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