We are censored-all of us. There is not one person in this country that has undiluted access to everything. And as a whole, the world has become mostly complacent with that fact. The ones who push the boundaries of censorship are most frequently artists. It's not always serious artists, who may remain unbathed for weeks and create crude sexual sculptures with their toenail clippings. Sometimes it's a couple of guys looking to poke fun at everyone.
Since when is this fair? Television was made for upstanding citizens to sit back and watch other upstanding citizens solve mediocre problems. Americans don't need to watch a woman get punched in the face by a drunk frat guy at a bar. If that were true MTV's Jersey Shore would have been allowed to put the "fist-to-face connection" on air for all to see. Little Susie May and Joe Jr. probably get enough of that action at home watching their soon-to-divorce parents slug it out over the dinner table. Which is the way God intended them to view true love.
Whomever is calling the black bar shots is doing a well enough job, but more is always better. Just ask the growing population of alcoholics and drug addicts. Near the end of a South Park episode, in which the prophet Muhammad "appeared", all crude and insulting words and images were blacked and beeped out. Huzah! That show asks way too many questions, and proves one too many points to be allowed on the air. The Muhammad episode was, without a doubt, their best episode. And who called for this action? A group of extremist muslims with a square head on their shoulders.
That's right! It took some seriously well thought out threatening to get the censor ball rolling. Maybe the wrong people are doing the censoring these days. Keep it up extremists, without your well balanced minds the censors might let the reigns loose on these wild thinkers. Watch out America, there's a new sherrif in town with the backbone to bleep you good.
I agree. I think the wrong things are being censored. If questions about faith or religion are brought up in anything, its automatically disputed, and then torn from its media source. I think there is a huge misunderstanding. Its perfectly okay to see women being beaten, or a junkie shooting herion, but completely unacceptable to be shown the intolerance we push onto other people.
ReplyDeleteAmerica needs to re-evaluate its priorities in what we teach our kids.
While it is true that there is not one person in this country that has undiluted access to everything, this is not censorship. Some people can not be trusted with access to everything. There is a serious breach to national security if everyone had access to everything. It is also true that some people have become complacent with this, the whole world has not. All of us are notbeing censured, as stated in opening remarks.
ReplyDeleteUpstanding citizens do watch TV and the message they are receiving, in some cases, is how not to act. The alternative lesson to be learned would be how God intended to act in the spirit of love.
Granted, this episode of South Park drew a huge audience and continues to do so in reruns. But that is an example of lack of censorship.
Censurship does exist on public TV. However there is little to be found on cable TV, Pay per view, Movies, certain magazines and in almost all other media sources.
Most of the censorship you mentioned (i.e. the South Park episode, MTV, etc) was self-censorsship. The South Park people were afraid for their lives and chose to edit themselves in place of facing an attack. The FCC governs what is and what isn't allowed on the airwaves, but cable has a lot of freedoms that local channels don't. And look at XM radio and PPV - almost anything goes there. Freedom of Speech is still alive and well in the US.
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