Censorship?
The consitutution (the bill of rights actually) includes the following as amendment I:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances
But, according to some of the actions of the FCC as of late, you wonder if the part of the FCC being supreme ruler of the universe was mistakenly omitted from our copy of the bill of rights. Between the great american tragedy of Boobgate (yes, many of us were traumatized by Janet Jackson's breast, and there were rumors of the religious wrong lobbying for a bill to ban breasts altogether), Howard Stern and any number of other allegedly obscene things on tv and/or radio, there has been a rush toward censorship. Now truthfully I can understand people being riled about the Jackson thing, although I thought the fines were pretty ridiculous, I was personally more offended by the bare ass guy that ran onto the field wearing only a jock strap prior to a kickoff in the second half of the same Super Bowl. But when people are complaining about the violence in Saving Private Ryan when it aired the past couple of times, that is just nuts. If you don't like it (and if you were surprised by the violence at that point after it had been publicized for years you must be living in a cave somewhere) then don't watch it. At long last we had a movie with a realistic depiction of the violence of war, and people have an issue with that. Now Congress wants to raise fines even more. Hell, how about passing an amendment that we only allow on TV what the gov't wants us to see. Oh wait, that was already tried, they called it communism and it pretty much was a failure. To you puritans out there, start thinking with your brain, and not the brainwashed part of it for a change.
Check out this story from the NYTimes (thanks to my brother for emailing me the story):
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/06/arts/06rich.html?ex=1108098000&en=e555d7e03cb0c4e8&ei=5070
and also this one from Yahoo:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=716&e=7&u=/ap/20050203/ap_on_go_co/congress_indecency
Thanks to the national archives for the 1st amendment text, check it out here if you want to:
http://www.archives.gov/
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances
But, according to some of the actions of the FCC as of late, you wonder if the part of the FCC being supreme ruler of the universe was mistakenly omitted from our copy of the bill of rights. Between the great american tragedy of Boobgate (yes, many of us were traumatized by Janet Jackson's breast, and there were rumors of the religious wrong lobbying for a bill to ban breasts altogether), Howard Stern and any number of other allegedly obscene things on tv and/or radio, there has been a rush toward censorship. Now truthfully I can understand people being riled about the Jackson thing, although I thought the fines were pretty ridiculous, I was personally more offended by the bare ass guy that ran onto the field wearing only a jock strap prior to a kickoff in the second half of the same Super Bowl. But when people are complaining about the violence in Saving Private Ryan when it aired the past couple of times, that is just nuts. If you don't like it (and if you were surprised by the violence at that point after it had been publicized for years you must be living in a cave somewhere) then don't watch it. At long last we had a movie with a realistic depiction of the violence of war, and people have an issue with that. Now Congress wants to raise fines even more. Hell, how about passing an amendment that we only allow on TV what the gov't wants us to see. Oh wait, that was already tried, they called it communism and it pretty much was a failure. To you puritans out there, start thinking with your brain, and not the brainwashed part of it for a change.
Check out this story from the NYTimes (thanks to my brother for emailing me the story):
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/06/arts/06rich.html?ex=1108098000&en=e555d7e03cb0c4e8&ei=5070
and also this one from Yahoo:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=716&e=7&u=/ap/20050203/ap_on_go_co/congress_indecency
Thanks to the national archives for the 1st amendment text, check it out here if you want to:
http://www.archives.gov/
posted by bigalsbeans at 9:48 PM
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