January 11, 2004
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ISSUES
Are Private Interests Running the Public Airwaves?
The public airwaves are little thought of in contemporary society as the public square or public highways. Although it would seem that everywhere else in our society we accept that the things which are publicly owned and accessed are by nature of this fact under the authority of the body which governs matters of public significance, such as matters of safety and sanity, we have somehow been convinced we haven’t this right when it comes to public-forum entertainment.
Additionally, as an historic rule, it is generally accepted that whenever a government is somehow rendered ineffective against abuse of any public interest by any entity, the private citizen is the one harmed, which is neither in the interest of the private citizen nor in the longer-term interest of the public official. We generally term actions against the interests of the public as “crime” and government inaction against such as corruption. We also refer to public inaction against the same as apathy. I refer to all of this as suicide.
And such is the case now lying before us with regard to the situation we now find ourselves in. An entertainment industry bent on using a tax-payer owned medium to ram its hooks into your mouth so that you learn to take the bait every time it is offered to you and buy the products that the sponsors sell so they can pay the producers to make more bait. This is all fine and dandy when done to a reasonable degree, but as we all know that bait has become stinkier and stinkier as the decades have passed to the degree that much of it is now unfit for the little fish that also have to swim in the pool, and so pervasive that no one can ever swim around it no matter what time of day they jump in. I am of course talking about the pervasive and gratuitous offensive language, sex and so forth now a mainstay on TV today making things you didn’t know about until you were 16 part of every day life for children at 7.
Let’s be honest. Monitoring your kid’s television to eliminate exposure to raw language et al spells out never turning your TV on again. Or hasn’t your doctor told you that it is never healthy to live in denial? Even as California congressman Doug Ose of Sacramento goes forth with the mission clarity of Don Quixote, and also as with the
Still, it seems strange to me that we don’t allow flashers to expose themselves in front of our children in our neighborhoods and yet curiously we allow this same behavior on our public airwaves (which are the digital equivalent to the town square). Certainly adults have been engaging in what adults often do for centuries, but it reasonably has been understood by civilized culture that it is not carried out in the company of children. We should not bury our heads in the sand, broadcasting on the public airwaves carries a reasonable expectation that younger audiences are watching. Much the same way that an individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy when in public and therefore cannot go about in the nude, so also the PUBLIC airwaves bear out to it’s consignee no reasonable expectation that activities or behaviors which are private in their very nature are free to be depicted without the constraints of common public scrutiny with regard to the concerns of public decency and the protection of children. As such, the “reasonable expectation” belongs to the public, that measures be taken by broadcasters to not broadcast in such a way that will cause trauma to young children.
We must be painfully aware by now that the airwaves have become a literal cesspool. Even amidst great programming are commercials with spicy language and women with lingerie dangling from their “Physically Correct”* anatomies. And we think this only happens during primetime or after hours? You silly ostrich! Come home from work early some day and see what is on during those “after school” hours. Or do you think your 12 year old should hear expletive-ridden discussions of lesbian lovers who choose to publicly discuss the benefits of genital piercing.
When they tell you to just “turn it off”, they are hoping you don’t slow down to think about how much that will really prevent your child from exposure to material inappropriate for his or her age. They are hoping you don’t have sufficient common sense whatsoever to look around and realize that hey, guess what? Television receivers can actually be found next to the toy sections of department stores, malls, in homes, back yards, city squares (such as Times Square), on airplanes, in schools, online, even in kindergartens. Wow, derrrr, I didn’t realize TV’s were really everywhere. Gooosh, I wonder if my little Johnny’s friend’s yuppie parents who are always so busy have a TV, too? Hmm… In other words, the broadcasters think you are a lazy buffoon, whom they can intimidate, manipulate and deceive at will. They think you are a sucker. And the only thing standing between them and your children whom they hope to hook on sex, violence, sugar and beer and the crazed commercial entertainment ventures pushing the same in order to provide them their guaranteed revenue. These industrial abuses are arguably far worse than the abuses of the exploitive ventures of the early 20th century, such as Rockefeller’s Standard Oil which took advantage of the laborer for top-heavy gain. The new Pottersville, reckless child consumerism or legitimate speech?
It of course has been argued by the other side that we simply need a V-chip in our TV’s and all again will be right for us little sheep. This as we even start to see some innuendo and base language slipping into “Children’s” programming. But why should you have to pay for a V-Chip when you have already paid the salary of law enforcement to protect and defend you from this exact same thing off-screen? But even if that were viable for some, still many who can barely afford a meal but rely on television during dangerous weather will be unable to afford the luxury. Is it the fault of the poor they cannot afford a V-Chip? Is it the fault of the average American family they cannot sit by their pre-teen or teenager all day as they watch TV? Is this really and truly a REASONABLE expectation? No, I should say that the proponents of the idea that garbage should freely flow across the public airwaves are well aware that this is impossible, without a family completely cutting themselves off from society, news and other important information. In so doing, the media then manage to fail the second purpose of the public airwaves: Public Safety Information. If parents do not have a TV, as some suggest they should consider, then there is no point in having broadcasts of any sort. To pretend the reality isn’t that parents are not God and cannot sit by 24/7 and filter programs and commercials is to live a dream far more apart from reality than
Today there are many avenues those interested in the more pernicious forms of entertainment may legally and responsibly pursue. I am of course speaking of cable, satellite and of scrambled local programming. But the word missing in most media giants’ vocabulary is the word, “responsibility”. Why is this, you suppose? Why do we have no sense of wanting to protect those who are small and frail with the time-honored adult power-punch called “discretion”? Well, it might be argued purely on the grounds of actions that many in
As far as Ose’s efforts go to pass legislation through which might curb those “7” words
Of ill-repute, it is nothing more than a brush up of a very bad painting. It only attacks the most lime-lighted symptoms of a problem the FCC has ignored because we have been in denial, wishy-washy and too shallow to admit we didn’t care enough about our children to find out what freedom of speech really meant and then to go after the bureaucrats who were appointed to protect us (please see Preamble to the Constitution of the United States) until they took some real action.
I think it is important that we shake ourselves out of our pitiful apathy and both acknowledge our responsibility to our progeny and the opportunity which the strength of the legal grounds common of public decency do present to us. If you will agree with me that this is high time that those who wish to be free do not remain irresponsible, but take to their hearts the very fire of public action, which has knighted we the people as the true Fourth Pillar, long before the other Three even existed. Lest the legitimate freedoms of all become a liability that is no longer neither desired by nor protected by our children’s children.
-Blogbat
Final words: Of worthwhile examination are a few pearls of wisdom which, like all moral matters and matters of human interaction, are timeless and transcendent, but which have been of greater influence on the lives of our great grandparents who by choice lived out their lives it seems in more sensible times:
“A Wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit” 1
“A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart” 2
“Whoever shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard” 3
“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” 4
Footnotes
*Physically Correct: The term Blogbat uses to describe the physiology of any woman the media deem to be acceptable and worthy of self-esteem, fulfilled dreams, money and mates. Or we can just go with how Hitler put it, “The Master Race”. This, of course is another sick concept put forth by the entertainment media that is harming our kids.
1, 2, 3: -Solomon (Proverbs 15, 18, 21)
4: -Jesus (Luke 17)
ISSUES
Comments (1)
Ahhhhh, this entry is so much easier to read.
I see the corruption of tv, but I think more of the sad excuses that pass for entertainment on today’s tv than filth or perversion. I’m in support of free speech, but we all must take responsibility for our own lives, including what we watch and let our children watch. We as Americans sure do spend a lot of time thinking about this too. What about European tv – nudity and sexuality is not so taboo in their media. Do they worry about it? No.