Enough With The Govern-Nannying
Ayn Rand Institute's Yaron Brook comes out, in an e-press release, against the "indecency" fines proposed by the FCC against CBS. I'm with him. He calls the fines...
...an ominous attack on the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.Just as the government doesn't fine newspapers that publish cartoons that Muslims deem indecent, it shouldn't fine broadcasters that air shows that viewers deem indecent.
...Moreover, it is the parents--not the government--who should be responsible for determining what their children are allowed to watch on TV.
Exactly. You've got kids, you parent them -- by discovering the "off" button on your TV remote. The same goes for any desire you, personally, might have, to avoid "indecent" shows. Personally, I recommend all the "indecent" shows, which tend to replace violence (bad!) with sex (good!).
In my family, we weren't allowed to watch TV as kids, save the (yawn!) Wonderful World Of Disney on Sunday nights. I can't tell you much about The Three Stooges, but I mowed through all of Jane Austen by the age of 12, and moved on to Thackery, and then the Russians: Larr-sky, Moesky, and Raskolnikovsky.
The link's busted.
> an ominous attack on the freedom
> of speech protected by the First
> Amendment.
Ominous? Isn't it always an omen? Eventually things have to stop being scary and someone has to actually be scared, or maybe even harmed. CBS Corporation is a big-assed company... It's not like they and their partners don't have resources to scream about this, and fight it in court if need be.
Before this week, had YOU even heard of CBS' "Without A Trace"? Me neither. Why shouldn't that particular corner of the media world be forbidden from depicting teenage orgies? I got nuthin' against depictions of teenage orgies, I'm just sayin', how many options for distribution do the makers and consumers of such product need?
Commercial broadcast TV is a rapidly-mutating and perhaps dying form. See this, and his columns for the preceding weeks:
http://tinyurl.com/96bj6
If the Matlock-centric crowd wants to get into a posturing death-dance of mutual political exploitation with the FCC, fine. T'Hell with 'em all. The real action in terms of human expression lies elsewhere, as do the threats thereto.
Crid at March 18, 2006 3:53 AM
I am so, so, so, so, SO tired of hearing "but think of the children!" when people bust out the pro-censorship, anti-personal decisions rhetoric. We can't let people choose what they want to watch! Think of the children! We can't let gays marry! Think of the children! The children! The children! I don't have children, and I'm already being taxed out the wazoo to pay for public school and programs that are overwhelmingly skewed to benefit children and the people who have them but can't afford them. It's called parenting. The government is not your nanny. My parents dealt with the problem of inappropriate content on TV by *gasp* not owning one until I was well into my teens. It's funny how this attitude seems to go hand-in-hand with the "don't you dare correct MY child!" attitude. I am heartily sick of it. Screw the children.
amh18057 at March 18, 2006 6:16 AM
Eleanor Roosevelt said something alone the lines of, "If you don't parent your children, others will be forced to do so." Invariably, that's me, when they're allowed to scream at the top of their lungs in a public place.
In the very same Starbucks I posted about above, before the rude guy on the phone came in, James Shea, the guy who played Lex Luthor on TV (no, I didn't watch the show, I asked him, "Are you an actor, and what's your name") was there with his kid, who looked to be about three. The kid was allowed to run off and stand on the big stuffed chair, and then scream "Daddddddddy!" "Dadddddy" at the top of his lungs. Shea just sat there talking to his friend. He was very nice when I spoke to him, and altogether oblivious, basically telling me, "You think that was loud...!" (ie, if I do, I don't know from loud.) Right. I know from pierced eardrums and lack of parenting. Hey, actor! Act like a parent next time, and shut your kid up!
Amy Alkon at March 18, 2006 6:25 AM
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