Activists Dominate Content Complaints
And what, I ask you, is wrong with that?
Michael Powell, the chairman of the FCC, did reveal that the number of complaints about indecency on television has soared dramatically in the last two years. Mediaweek counters with this: more than 99% of the complaints have come from one source--the Parents' Television Council.
Naturally, certain "artists" who seem to think that they have an inherent right to get in your face with whatever they call "art" are complaining. One says, "It means that really a tiny minority with a very focused political agenda is trying to censor American television and radio."
Ask any two people what censorship is, and you won't always get the same answer. Technically, censorship is a government statute or regulation that restrains the dissemination of news or certain types of entertainment content. But if you ask a put-upon-sounding artist, he'll tell you that censorship is any kind of restraint upon them, no matter who does the restraining--and that even includes parents who mount the TV in a locked cabinet to which only they hold the key.
The ostensible issue here is where the complaints are coming from and who is driving them. But the PTC is not really driving anything that didn't exist before. Complaining to the FCC used to be a very laborious and time-consuming process--and furthermore, not many people bothered to complain because they gave up hoping that the complaints would do any good. (The re-election of Bill Clinton in the face of persistent rumors of his adulteries, and his survival of impeachment in the face of a proved adultery, probably contributed to the sense of hopelessness.)
The PTC said, correctly, "People who feel licked are going to get licked!"--or words to that effect. They then set about streamlining the complaint process, even to creating hyperlinks on their own site to help you file a complaint, contact the FCC short of filing a complaint, or contact networks or sponsors. So the complaints are from people who at first didn't know how to complain, or that it would do any good to complain, but who always wanted to complain. Neither the PTC nor anyone else generates complaints out of the whole cloth.
Furthermore, "activists" are always going to dominate any complaint process--and anyone might become an activist if you make that person angry enough. God knows--literally--that TV has done plenty to make people angry. If any of a number of kings of the Southern Kingdom of ancient Judah (specifically Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, or especially Josiah) were alive today, a lot of these sniping artists would wonder what fell on them--probably a broadcast tower or two. As it is, the crashing and glass-shattering sounds you hear are of dozens of television sets being thrown onto trash heaps across the country as families get fed up trying to sort what little redeeming programming content now remains out of the cesspool that is the typical TV schedule of today. Call it censorship, call it anything you like--but if the "artistic" community leaves people no choice, then let them wonder why The Suits suddenly tell them that they can't have them ruining their reputations.
Michael Powell, the chairman of the FCC, did reveal that the number of complaints about indecency on television has soared dramatically in the last two years. Mediaweek counters with this: more than 99% of the complaints have come from one source--the Parents' Television Council.
Naturally, certain "artists" who seem to think that they have an inherent right to get in your face with whatever they call "art" are complaining. One says, "It means that really a tiny minority with a very focused political agenda is trying to censor American television and radio."
Ask any two people what censorship is, and you won't always get the same answer. Technically, censorship is a government statute or regulation that restrains the dissemination of news or certain types of entertainment content. But if you ask a put-upon-sounding artist, he'll tell you that censorship is any kind of restraint upon them, no matter who does the restraining--and that even includes parents who mount the TV in a locked cabinet to which only they hold the key.
The ostensible issue here is where the complaints are coming from and who is driving them. But the PTC is not really driving anything that didn't exist before. Complaining to the FCC used to be a very laborious and time-consuming process--and furthermore, not many people bothered to complain because they gave up hoping that the complaints would do any good. (The re-election of Bill Clinton in the face of persistent rumors of his adulteries, and his survival of impeachment in the face of a proved adultery, probably contributed to the sense of hopelessness.)
The PTC said, correctly, "People who feel licked are going to get licked!"--or words to that effect. They then set about streamlining the complaint process, even to creating hyperlinks on their own site to help you file a complaint, contact the FCC short of filing a complaint, or contact networks or sponsors. So the complaints are from people who at first didn't know how to complain, or that it would do any good to complain, but who always wanted to complain. Neither the PTC nor anyone else generates complaints out of the whole cloth.
Furthermore, "activists" are always going to dominate any complaint process--and anyone might become an activist if you make that person angry enough. God knows--literally--that TV has done plenty to make people angry. If any of a number of kings of the Southern Kingdom of ancient Judah (specifically Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, or especially Josiah) were alive today, a lot of these sniping artists would wonder what fell on them--probably a broadcast tower or two. As it is, the crashing and glass-shattering sounds you hear are of dozens of television sets being thrown onto trash heaps across the country as families get fed up trying to sort what little redeeming programming content now remains out of the cesspool that is the typical TV schedule of today. Call it censorship, call it anything you like--but if the "artistic" community leaves people no choice, then let them wonder why The Suits suddenly tell them that they can't have them ruining their reputations.
posted by Temlakos at 11:56 AM
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