This page is a spin-off from a similar page about cultural and political
bias in the movies. The
motion picture industry and the television industry are inescapably co-dependent. Each of them
produces political propaganda and "envelope pushing" entertainment that is destructive to our
traditional American culture.
Note: The material about the V-Chip is now
on this page. The V-Chip is a weak and
ineffective filter, simply because the people who produce TV shows decide for themselves what the
V-Chip rating will be for each show.
16 Reasons Why the United
States is Going to Hell in a Handbasket. [#3] Everywhere we turn today we (and
our children) are bombarded with images of sex and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures,
music, and TV. This constant bombardment has promoted promiscuity, and corrupted the minds of
the American people and made us into a nation a degenerates and perverts.
Obama
and Showtime Admit to Exploiting Extreme Weather Events to 'Shift' Public Opinion.
The finale of Showtime's "Years of Living Dangerously" wrapped up a long effort to push climate
alarmism with an interview between New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and President Barack
Obama. Friedman and Obama agreed on the need to connect extreme weather events to climate change in
order to sway public opinion, showcasing the partisan political goal of the Showtime series.
CBS'
'The Mentalist Depicts [a] Murderer of Women as [a] Friend of George W. Bush.
[Suppose] you are a TV series writer or producer and you want your audience to know in one quick
scene that your character is the big, evil, bad guy. How do you achieve this goal? Well,
Hollywood has found the perfect way to do that. This somewhat new trick is to introduce the bad guy by
showing him or her standing in a photo with some high-ranking Republican, often George W. Bush.
After the audience sees the bad guy in a photo with a Republican, why, it is obvious that he is evil, right?
Openly Partisan Stephen
Colbert Chosen to Boost the Left, not CBS Ratings. Stephen Colbert will soon be the first openly partisan comic
with a late night show on network television. It's just one reason why today's news that the liberal host of The
Colbert Report will take over for David Letterman on The Late Show smacks of culture, not show business pragmatism.
Late night hosts must appeal to a wide audience. So poaching a comedian from the niche-friendly world of cable television
makes little sense, particularly a figure with a hard-partisan persona. Yes, Colbert plays a "conservative" on his
Comedy Central program, but it's just a pose to mock the right and defend the left.
Obamacare
Propaganda in TV Scripts? Top Obama aide Valerie Jarrett recently granted an interview
to a celebrity-gossip website called Popsugar and revealed why she had come to Hollywood. "I'm
meeting with writers of various TV shows and movies to try to get it into the scripts." The "it" is
Obamacare. Conservatives are no match for liberals in this arena. The White House people
know the immense cultural power the Left has in the popular culture. Liberals rightly credit TV
and movies and pop songs for America's growing support for gay "marriage." So why not use that
power for Obamacare?
Obama
talks climate change in Showtime documentary. President Obama will discuss climate change in an upcoming
Showtime documentary series produced by James Cameron. Mashable reports the segment with Obama will offer an
exclusive understanding of the president's thoughts on climate science and policy.
The Editor says...
Is it a documentary or a propaganda film? Mr. Obama will read a teleprompter and pronounce someone else's thoughts on
climate science and policy. If you were to separate Obama from his teleprompter and ask him what carbon dioxide is or
what it does, or why he thinks carbon dioxide is harmful, he probably couldn't tell you. That's because he is poorly
educated and unfit for his job.
Nabisco Ad: Homosexuality
'Wholesome'. Nabisco added its voice to the current trend of forcing liberal social agendas by producing a
commercial for their Honey Maid graham crackers and Teddy Grahams snacks showing a homosexual couple raising two children
with a voiceover stating "this is wholesome." The ad begins with a father bottle feeding his baby as another father
slips in to kiss the baby's forehead. The commercial then meanders through a montage of families: mixed race,
single dad, tattooed dad, military dad, and two dads.
'NCIS'
Portrays 'Reprobate' by Showing Him with President George W. Bush. Last week, CBS's popular law enforcement procedural
show NCIS chose what is becoming an increasingly common way to establish that a character is the episode's bad guy by showing him in
photos with Republicans. [...] The obvious message is that if the bad guy is in a photo with a Republican, a tea partier, or conservative,
why it's a cinch he's no good.
Reality Bites Gays. Image control has been crucial
to gay activists. In 1980 Hollywood produced, Cruising, a big budget film that showed the seamier side of gay life. [...] Since then,
any filmmaker who does not conform his gay characters to a positive and largely asexual template is likely to be criticized. The arrival of
the AIDS pandemic helped reinforce this pressure by offering up a new version of a time honored movie stereotype — the terminally ill secular
saint. Today it is allowable to use a gay drama queen as a comedic foil, but only if he is also shown to have a heart of gold.
Otherwise gay characters have to be positive. In recent years such gay characters have been everywhere on TV and in movies.
Sacrilege: Did the 'Glee'
Christmas Go Too Far?Glee's "Previously Unaired Christmas" should have stayed true to its name and remained a lost script,
considering it was complete with a bisexual Santa, transgender Virgin Mary and its fair share of drunkenness. Glee producer Ryan Murphy
is used to pushing the moral boundaries on his hit musical show, but last night's episode may have gone a little too far even for his most loyal
viewers — especially Christian ones.
Propaganda: TV Shows Will Soon Be Weaving Obamacare Into
Plotlines. Young people are key for the Affordable Care Act to work, and as a result of a half-million-dollar grant by the California
Endowment, TV shows regularly consumed by these young people will soon be weaving Obamacare into plotlines in order to get more of them enrolled in
the health care program.
Hollywood Receives Grant to Promote
Obamacare on TV Shows. The California Endowment, a foundation spending big bucks to promote Obamacare, has just delivered a $500,000 grant
to TV writers and producers to sneak Obamacare promotions into their programs. "The aim is to produce compelling prime-time narratives that encourage
Americans to enroll, especially the young and healthy, Hispanics and other key demographic groups needed to make the overhaul a success."
'Duck Dynasty' Star: Show Adding 'Fake
Bleeps' Despite No Cursing. In an interview with Sports Spectrum TV earlier this year that's only recently gone viral, Phil Robertson admitted
that fake bleeps were inserted into the show even though there was no cursing happening. "The inserted fake bleeps ... like somebody had used profanity,
but no one had used profanity," Robertson said.
VMA Performance Violated MTV's
Own Broadcast, Workplace Standards. MTV violated its own broadcast and workplace standards when it allowed pig-tailed pop singer Miley
Cyrus, clad in a flesh-colored bikini, to perform simulated sex acts with Robin Thicke before a stunned crowd at the network's Video Music Awards in
Brooklyn Sunday. MTV is owned by Viacom, the world's fourth largest media conglomerate, which also owns Black Entertainment Television (BET),
Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and Spike TV.
The Editor says...
Mommy, What's Miley Cyrus Doing to That Teddy
Bear? MTV should consider changing the name of their annual music awards program from the VMAs to the STDs. Sunday night's
internationally televised broadcast set a new low for filth and debauchery even by MTV's standards. It was a great big freak show celebrating
all that is wrong with American culture and it was targeted at American school children.
HBO Newsroom Deceptively Edits Zimmerman 911
Call as Part of Plot. In March 2012, NewsBusters reported NBC's Today show deceptively edited George Zimmerman's 911 call to make it appear he was a racist.
On Sunday, HBO actually had one of its primary characters on the series The Newsroom deceptively edit that call exactly the way NBC News did it.
The Age of Hyperbole: How Normal Weather Became 'Extreme'.
As American linguist Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa said: "In the age of television, image becomes more important than substance."
It is effectively visual lying, dictated by Marshall McLuhan's observation: "The medium is the message." For example, TV news
programs often illustrate air pollution with a smoke stack emitting water vapor, implying it is pollution when it is anything but.
Watchdog
Group Denounces FOX Network's Decision to Air Sexually Explicit X-Rated Cartoons. Beginning Saturday [7/27/2013], the FOX network
will air a number of animated shows that contain sexually explicit and profanity-laced content never before shown on network television during
its "Animation Domination High-Def" (ADHD) programming block. The X-rated cartoons, some of which feature full frontal nudity and cartoon
characters engaging in sexual activity, are modeled after Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" and will also be available on the internet.
Sitcom Infantalization and the Death of
America. It's not difficult to peg precisely when the American sitcom moved away from following the lives of mature adults to idealizing
the lives of overgrown adolescents. But there's no question that two generations of Americans have now grown up in a world where virtually everyone
worth watching on television is a twentysomething to thirtysomething without a home, a spouse, children, or even a solid job in many cases.
Gay Left Celebrates Disney Airing
Same-Sex Couple on Kids' Show. Mickey Mouse just officially added the gay agenda to his programming. In early 2014, Disney Channel will be all
set to air its first openly gay couple in its family-oriented TV show "Good Luck Charlie." According to TV Guide, an episode of the family show will air a plot
in which one of the four children has a playdate with a kid who has "two moms."
'Sesame Street' to teach kids about when
Mommy goes to prison. It's brought to you by the letter P — for prison. PBS's "Sesame Street" is moving
from ABCs and counting numbers to offering its young viewers a bigger lesson in life: how to cope when Mommy or Daddy lands behind
bars. Called "Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration," the program is distributing "tool kits" to schools, community
centers and even jails in 10 states — including New York — starting today to help kids ages 3 to 8,
organizers said.
The Editor says...
Apparently they presume that Daddy is either a complete unknown or he's already in prison.
HGTV: Use American Flag as
Table Cloth. HGTV viewers are expressing outrage after the network suggested they use American flags as table cloths for
Fourth of July celebrations. Many viewers called it offensive, un-American and an insult to the American military. "Using
an American flag as a table cloth dishonors all Americans who love Old Glory — especially those who gave their lives
defending it," one viewer wrote. "No one dies for a table cloth."
The President Gives Hollywood a Pass
on Violence. The president's campaign against gun violence has produced a stale debate marked by lots of speeches with
little achieved. A more creative chief executive would have used this moment to widen the discussion by drawing attention to the
increasingly graphic violence so pervasive in television shows, movies and videogames. Mr. Obama is particularly well positioned
to challenge Hollywood because of his special relationship with the media world's elites.
FCC mulls relaxing
policy for TV indecency. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering making changes to its rules that bar TV
and radio stations from airing indecent material. The commission on Monday [4/1/2013] issued a request for public comment on a proposal that
would focus on penalizing only "egregious" cases. The proposal would be a shift away from the agency's past policy, adopted during
the Bush administration, of penalizing even "fleeting expletives."
Top
Television Shows Today Full of Garbage. A few years ago, network television became dominated by cheaply made reality TV
shows and talent contests, sitcoms with hyperactive manic characters, and socially liberal themes. Television has always pushed
the edge when it comes to socially progressive themes. [...] Now, with the exception of sports shows, it is impossible to sit down with
children and watch one of the top ten television shows on network TV without exposing them to sex and profanity.
Relativism: America's new 'religion'.
It is unlikely that many Americans would consciously choose a culture of coarseness, so why is American culture — TV, radio,
films, books and advertising — so immersed in violence, indiscriminate sex, superficiality, pornography and ugliness?
There is much talk about our freedom to choose, but we rarely hear that we can't choose the consequences of our choices. When
relativism is adopted by a society, it does not produce beauty, but coarseness, if not as the desired outcome, then as an unintended
consequence. One can see this occurring in America, in a descent to the lowest common denominator when it comes to art, music,
literature, public discourse and entertainment.
Feminists: Leave My
Boys Alone. This past week an episode of Sesame Street set off a firestorm of debate over whether a boy muppet
named Telly should be ashamed that his muppet friends caught him playing with dolls. In one corner "traditionalists" who
called out the episode as gender and sex confused. In the other "modern feminists" who were offended by almost everything
the traditionalists said and believe.
NBC Declares War on Christians.
Does NBC hate Christians? That's what I was wondering over the weekend as I watched "Saturday Night Live" blaspheme Jesus Christ in a
violent and bloody Quentin Tarantino parody — just three days after Ash Wednesday.
The Teenage Horror
of 'Parenthood'. The NBC series "Parenthood"' has drawn raves from TV critics this season for a storyline about a
40-something mother fighting cancer. Then on Jan. 1, NBC asked viewers to tune in the following Tuesday for an "unforgettable"
new episode. A teenager would get an abortion at Planned Parenthood. Such is NBC's definition of "parenthood."
Obama's Legacy on Black America. In my hotel room,
I caught an interview with First Lady Michelle Obama on Lift Every Voice, a faith-based program on BET (Black Entertainment Television).
I was amazed at how the black host and program producers portrayed Mrs. Obama and her husband as the couple they want to believe them to be —
that is, strongly committed Christians. In reality, Obama is the most anti-Christian president in U.S. history.
SyFy Loves Union
Protesters, Hates Those Darn Company Owners. One of the biggest hit series on the science fiction cable channel SyFy is "Warehouse 13,"
a show where federal agents traipse about the country recovering "artifacts" that have dangerous, other worldly powers. The show's latest
installment indulged a few real world, left-wing political tropes — slamming capitalism, praising unions and attacking southerners.
New York's Chait Admits Hollywood's Systematic
Liberal Propagandizing. In a shocking development, Jonathan Chait of New York magazine has finally admitted what I and other conservatives have been
claiming for decades: Hollywood is a leftist town, and they ladle their leftism into their programming.
The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy Is on Your Screen. You don't
have to be an especially devoted consumer of film or television (I'm not) to detect a pervasive, if not total, liberalism. Americans for Responsible
Television and Christian Leaders for Responsible Television would be flipping out over the modern family in Modern Family, not to mention the girls
of Girls and the gays of Glee, except that those groups went defunct long ago.
HBO's
'Newsroom' Programmed by Soros-Funded Think Progress? Like The West Wing, The Newsroom is penned by
liberal activist and TV producer Aaron Sorkin. Who is writing it? According to Sorkin's writing team, the George
Soros-funded, extremist website Think Progress is doing the heavy lifting for team Sorkin. The episode for Monday,
July 9 was a Tea Party bashing extravaganza filled with all sorts of smears of Tea Partiers, of Rep. Michele Bachmann and
all things conservative.
Obama's Historical Fiction. The political left has a
long history of using plays, movies, and TV series to push their agenda because dramatic media showcase their agenda items to good effect. Many
audience members get so wrapped up in the images, characters, and action that they don't stop to think about the huge dose of political propaganda
being served on the side.
Liberal Propaganda for $300: 'Jeopardy'
Sells Out to Democrats. Does Alex Trebek owe Republicans equal time on his Jeopardy! game show? Answer: Yes, the show
has become overrun by Democratic politicians and is only going to get even more politically imbalanced in the days to come.
Family
Guy Does Entire Episode On The Tea Party, Depicts Them As Violent Fools. All in all, it was a fairly funny (although
sledgehammer broad) parody of conservative Astro Turf groups run by duplicitous billionaires. That being said, pegging it all on
the Tea Party made the whole thing seem about as current as satirizing the Whigs.
The Sad Decline of Saturday Night Live.
It has had its hilarious streaks and its vacuous doldrums, but Saturday Night Live is an American institution. While it has leaned left in its
comedy for most or perhaps all of its 37 years on NBC, SNL never gave you the sense that it had tipped so far over as to lose all sense of perspective.
For many of us that may have changed with the revelation that an opening sketch for last Saturday's SNL was scrapped, apparently because it dug a little
too deep at President Obama. If that's true it shows just how far American comedy has become enervated by having an African-American liberal hero in the
White House.
Obama's Historical Fiction. The
political left has a long history of using plays, movies, and TV series to push their agenda because dramatic media showcase their
agenda items to good effect. Many audience members get so wrapped up in the images, characters, and action that they don't stop
to think about the huge dose of political propaganda being served on the side. This is one reason why the left talks so much of
narratives. The political right, on the other hand, completely dominates the emotionally cooler medium of talk radio, where
words alone have to carry the message.
Obama's Hollywood Palace Guards Pour In Big
Bucks. If you're wondering why America's so-called satirists still haven't found the fact that Obama ate a dog funny... In fact,
if you're wondering why no one in Hollywood will satirize Obama in any way whatsoever, this should help to explain a lot.
How Many Negative Images
of Men Do You See on TV in 10 Minutes? I was watching the show House Hunters last night on HGTV and noticed that, even
with such a neutral show, in the space of ten minutes I saw two commercials that were abusive to men. In one commercial, a woman was
angry at a man at work and dumped a cup of coffee on him. ... I wish I could just peacefully watch a show without the constant message that
says men are wimps, perverts, idiots, or must live in constant fear of women and the simultaneous message that women are powerful.
Ed Schultz and MSNBC's Sewer of Hate:
This story emerges in a little known book called The General: David Sarnoff and the Rise of the Communications Industry by
Kenneth Bilby. Mr. Bilby was a close associate of David Sarnoff's. The ultimate Sarnoff insider who was a two decades-long
member of Sarnoff's management team. The book, a combined biography and insider's account of the legendary Sarnoff —
the man who was known in his day as the creator of the modern NBC and "the father of television" (not to mention color
television) — tells quite a tale. And in reading it, one is left speechless at just how far the network's mindless
obsession with all things fashionably left — otherwise known as MSNBC — has now managed to steer the entire NBC
network's reputation into a veritable sewer of hatred.
'American
Idol': Worship Obama, Not Jesus Christ. Contestant Elise Testone on Fox's fading pop star showcase
"American Idol" sang a duet of sorts with Obama this week as part of her cover performance of the Al Green
classic "Let's Stay Together." Just imagine anything of the sort being done with former President George W.
Bush. Impossible, we know. But now word is out that a spiritual "Idol" wannabe has been told in no
uncertain terms by the producers not to sing the praises of Jesus Christ, according to The Daily News.
America's One True Religion:
If fewer folks celebrate Mass, then they certainly celebrate themselves. But if they don't celebrate themselves,
they celebrate other mortals. We call these other mortals "celebrities." Indeed, America has a culture of
celebrity. Some of our celebrities are celebrated for nothing more than their celebrity; they're "famous
for being famous," and they seem to have no redeeming qualities. We're celebrating the wrong celebrities.
There've been only twelve men who have trod the Moon. Yet we ignore them and celebrate Eminem and Snoop Dog.
The revenge of Hooterville.
Once upon a time in America, there was good wholesome television. Lawrence Welk. My Three Sons.
Red Skelton. ... The rural purge was bloodless but Stalinesque as Norman Lear took over the airwaves to preach
liberalism to the masses. The caricature of the white conservative as an overstuffed racist who cannot deal
with change was embodied in Archie Bunker and lives on today. If you question abortion or wonder why after
10,000 years of civilization men should marry men, you must be a racist and therefore your argument automatically
is invalid.
Whoopi
Goldberg: Communism Is 'a Great Concept' That 'Makes Perfect Sense' on Paper. According to "The View's" Whoopi
Goldberg, communism is a "great concept" that "makes perfect sense" on paper. The comedienne and co-host made the
rather astounding comment on Tuesday [12/20/2011] while discussing the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.
Communism
Is Not a Good Idea, Not Even on Paper. When one hears someone say "communism is a great concept, a
wonderful idea on paper, etc," you know right away one is dealing with a political novice. For someone to
make such a ludicrous statement in light of insurmountable evidence is either ignorant or is willing to suspend
reality to entertain their own thinking, which is in essence, liberalism.
TV teaches the
slut life. From the sluts and hos of MTV's "Jersey Shore," to the trailer-trash stars of "16 and
Pregnant," to the extreme girl-on-girl emotional violence committed on TLC's innocuous-sounding "The Next Great
Baker" (seriously), a strange planetary shift is occurring. You see it on ABC's "The Bachelor," where women
engage in hand-to-hand combat to win the temporary affections of a random guy they've never met. You
even see it on NBC's "The Apprentice," where women get into hair-pulling fistfights in a demented quest for
a crummy job.
ABC's
Dance with Chaz Bono Highlights Networks LGBT Agenda. The controversy continues over
Chaz Bono's participation in ABC's upcoming season of "Dancing with the Stars." The response
to the transgender contestant's role in a once-family friendly show has left ABC with an ongoing
PR problem.
Decency
Groups Warn of Trashy Fall TV Line-up. Television watchdog groups are warning that the
line up of prime-time shows the major networks are set to trot out this fall are trashier than ever, with
over-sexualized content the increasing norm. Matt Philbin of the Culture and Media Institute (CMI)
told CBN News: "It's clear that Hollywood is out of ideas when it comes to sit-coms and prime-time
dramas. Everything now has to focus on sex."
Publicly
Funded Leftism on Community Television. Community television began, like many bad ideas, in the
1960s, when self-styled "media activist" George Stoney and others began lobbying the FCC to mandate "public
access" broadcasting. Stoney is described as "an early advocate of video as a tool for social change,"
who makes films "focusing on issues of social justice." In short, he's a leftist. ... Media activists
demanded that this revenue be earmarked to support local public, educational and government television, known
as PEG channels. FCC rulings in 1972 and 1974 led to the mandate that every community with 3,500 or more
cable subscribers be offered four public access channels funded by access fees. The Supreme Court ruled
in 1979 that the FCC had overstepped its authority, but by then it was too late...
Good riddance, Oprah. Oprah's
only-in-America success has come at the expense of American culture. Because she's a garden variety
show-biz liberal with a giant megaphone. And because a healthy society should eventually recognize
emotional voyeurism and personal-pain pornography for what they are, and marginalize them. It's easy to
forget that in the 1980s and early 1990s Oprah was, in the words of Penn State Professor Vicki Abt, the
"Queen of Trash." With its parade of freaks, miscreants and hapless victims baited and confronting each
other on-camera, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" was indistinguishable from the offerings of Geraldo, Sally Jessie
Rafael or Ricki Lake.
Sesame
Street and Friends 'pumping out left wing messages'. Conservative columnist and author Ben Shapiro
accused television executives and writers of pushing a liberal agenda in several high profile American television
entertainment shows. His book "Primetime Propaganda" will show how the "most powerful medium of mass
communication in human history became a vehicle for spreading the radical agenda of the left side of the
political spectrum," according to the publishers HarperCollins.
The (Distorted) View. The Joy
Behar-Whoopi Goldberg meltdown highlights the worst in American liberalism: attitudinal pressure masquerading
as argument, a smug alienation from the surrounding culture, a fetish for euphemism, and a conceit that holds
contrary positions as indecent. Worst of all, the made-for-TV spectacle demonstrates that when reality
clashes with ideology, too many liberals opt for comforting delusions over disconcerting facts.
NBC Changes Rules to Allow Same-Sex 'Today'
Wedding. After a meeting with gay and lesbian activists on Thursday, NBC's "Today"
show said it is changing the rules for its annual wedding contest to allow same-sex couples to
apply for a ceremony conducted on morning TV.
CNBC
Anchor: Hugo Chávez is 'Funny,' 'Charming,' 'A Seductor,' but 'Dangerous'. What is
it with Hollywood personalities going to Venezuela and being swept off their feet by the thuggish dictator
Hugo Chávez. They come back with these stories claiming he is just misconstrued by the media and
that he's really a great guy.
The "Glee" Agenda.
Bill O'Reilly recently hosted a "culture warriors" segment at Fox News where both "warriors" agreed that
homosexuality is morally acceptable. That same no-debate mentality has been a regular drumbeat on
the Fox television series "Glee," a musical drama/comedy about a high school glee club in Lima, Ohio.
This show is wildly popular because of the music. Songs performed on the show sell feverishly on
iTunes within hours. It's not a hit because it's a political or social debate forum. But just as it
dazzles viewers with musical performances, it's hammered hard against traditional values at every turn.
More
abortion doctors have been murdered on 'Law & Order' than in real life. Law & Order promoted
its storylines as "ripped from the headlines," but the show's hate-on towards social conservatives was actually
sourced from liberal op-ed pages, where paranoid (and inaccurate) predictions about "Tea Party violence" and
ever-looming "Christian theocracies" have enjoyed an equally long run.
Bill Maher's 'Black' President.
[Scroll down] It is the liberal media machine which ignores intellectual blacks like Thomas Sowell
or Walter Williams and elevates racial hucksters like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to the level of "community
spokesmen." It is our leftist-dominated entertainment complex which continues to glorify black low-lifes
and gang-bangers in music and on film. It is the liberal academics who continue to insist that America
is a fundamentally racist nation, and that "reparation" must be made to peole who never experienced slavery
by people who never engaged in it.
Hell in the Pacific.
The war in the Pacific is worthy of increased interest as our own unique contribution to free the world of fascism.
Thus it was with great anticipation that World War II fans tuned into the ten-part HBO docudrama "The
Pacific," co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks — who brought us the "Band of Brothers"
series that followed soldiers in Europe after the D-Day landings. I could stomach only five of the ten
episodes. Excellent production values aside, it fast becomes apparent that the intent is to vilify war
and to ignore the justness of America's cause.
Media's Attack
on Fatherhood. Recently I saw a MasterCard commercial in which a pre-teen son arrogantly "teaches"
the father environmental lessons while grocery shopping. ... Such subtle messages about the supremacy of
children over their dads are now common. Turn on the television and watch just about any channel for one
evening and a particularly disgusting pattern begins to emerge: the "dad" is often portrayed as wimpy,
ignorant and doltish. Everyone is smarter and more mature. Nearly everyone else is also more
attractive and physically fit. ... The unmistakable message behind such carefully crafted ads and images
is that dads are disposable — they don't really contribute much to the family other than being
the brunt of jokes.
Why
Should So Many Americans Feel Threatened by Business? [Television] has offered several decades
worth full of negative stereotypes and sleazy plot twists involving businessmen. As long ago as 1987, a
controversial PBS documentary called "Hollywood's Favorite Heavy: Businessmen on Prime Time TV" (hosted
by movie legend Eli Wallach) pointed to the tendency of major networks to portray corporate executives as
felonious, ruthless, blackmailing, violent, lecherous, unfaithful, greedy and, frequently, murderous.
The program cited studies at the time showing that on fictional network series (including dramas, soap operas,
and even comedies), no occupational group so frequently committed major crimes so frequently as wealthy
business leaders.
Obama and Miss
California. Miss USA judge and Hollywood blogger "Perez Hilton" (real name: Mario Lavandeira) forced
his own political agenda onto the nationally televised Miss USA pageant when he asked Miss California if she supported
gay marriage. An out homosexual who traffics in outing closeted gays, gossiping and trashing celebrities, having
Hilton as a pageant judge — hired, presumably, by NBC — was hardly an accident. ... One does
not have to be a professional media critic to see through the transparent agenda of those who placed Hilton/Lavandeira
on the judges' panel.
It Takes a Village of
Idiots. I have always found it odd that whenever the producers of TV, movies and records, are accused of
setting a bad example for the kids, they always insist that their product is simply entertainment and that entertainment
in no way influences youthful behavior. If they really believed it, they'd have to be even stupider than they are.
Late-Night Comics Still
in Thrall to Obama. As a fan of comedy in general and satire in particular, I've always enjoyed
the late night television circuit. ... One of the chief complaints I've been hearing from conservative friends
over the last several years, though, is that these shows are nothing more than thinly disguised bastions of
left-wing brainwashing where pseudo-intellectual elites bash the Grand Old Party and indoctrinate the nation's
socialist youth against sound conservative thinking.
How 25 Years of Gay Activism in
Hollywood Has Paid Off: If you're noticing your TV screen turning pink, it's not just your
imagination. The new broadcast TV season includes 22 series featuring a total of 35 openly gay
characters, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). GLAAD, which rides
herd over all Hollywood scripts dealing with homosexuality, says the number of series with homosexual
characters is a record. These series are on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and the CW networks. The total
figure does not include shows on cable... .
Ann Coulter Indicts 'Friends'
and Liberal Press for Glamorizing Unwed Mothers. Coulter sees Hollywood and the news media
contributing to various social problems in the United States by approving — even glamorizing —
single motherhood, a theme she develops in her new bestseller: Guilty: Liberal 'Victims and Their Assault
on America.
Stan
Lee 'to create world's first gay superhero'. Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-man, is planning to
unleash the world's first homosexual superhero in a new television programme. Lee has reportedly created
a character called Thom Creed, a high-school basketball player who is forced to hide his sexuality as well as
his superpowers.
How
25 Years of Gay Activism in Hollywood Has Paid Off: The new broadcast TV season includes
22 series featuring a total of 35 openly gay characters, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation (GLAAD). GLAAD, which rides herd over all Hollywood scripts dealing with homosexuality, says
the number of series with homosexual characters is a record. These series are on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and
the CW networks. The total figure does not include shows on cable, like The L Word on Showtime, or
MTV's all-gay LOGO network.
Lavender
Propaganda: More Prime Time TV Series Feature Gay Characters than Ever Before. "Desensitization"
is one of the principal strategies employed by homosexual activists to advance their political agenda. The
idea is to overwhelm the public with images of wholesome homosexual individuals and couples, in order to reduce
people's instinctive resistance to homosexuality and overcome the public perception that homosexuality is a
distasteful, abnormal lifestyle.
Late-Night
Comics Skewer Republicans 7-to-1, Study Finds. If you're a fan of Jay Leno or David Letterman, you
may already know this: You have to listen to seven Republican jokes for every one the late-night comedians
tell about Democrats.
Not-so-Funny Business With Late-Night Political
Humor? A new study reveals late-night comics are not fair and balanced when it comes to the
election — not really a shocker. But the non-partisan Center for Media and Public Affairs says David
Letterman and Jay Leno are skewering the Republican candidates seven times more than the Democrats. The
group says that during the five weeks after John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, Leno and
Letterman picked on McCain and Palin 286 times, but told just 42 jokes about Barack Obama and
Joe Biden.
Dish Network Now Has An Obama
Channel. Three readers from different parts of the country email that Channel 073-00 on the
Dish Network is now labeled OBAMA. The channel plays his two-minute ad laying out his economic plan on
a loop, over and over.
Girly Men: The Media's Attack on
Masculinity. At work they're Masters of the Universe, but in the social realm they're ineffectual
schlubs. Women can do whatever they want to them, and the men can't find a way to get control over their
personal lives. They spend much of the program discussing their feelings about the terrible things that
are happening to them. These otherwise powerful men show that no man is safe from the myriad humiliations
women and life in general are apt to heap upon them.
A&E's
faith problem: My wife and I sat riveted the other night, watching Larry King Live as he showed
clips from A&E's made-for-TV version of the events of September 11th on board Flight #93. The actors on
the show made a point of telling King how accurate and true to the transcripts this movie was, so I was
curious to hear how they handled Beamer's last moments. As I suspected would happen, Beamer's final
prayer to his God was excised.
The Politically Correct Horror
Picture Show. Occasionally, I view the History Channel, and Sunday evening I
tuned into a two-hour horror show. Viewers were treated to frightening scenarios for
three-plus disasters, some natural, some of our own making, that are bound to destroy the
world and everybody in it, or something just short of that. … This is yet more evidence
that those who paint the most horrific pictures of our future are determined that we get
one consistent with their jaundiced view of mankind's capacity for self government.
What Does "Family
Friendly" Mean? In the world of the networks, where sleaze, sex, blood and shock
are the rule, the definition of "family friendly" can easily be watered down — and has been.
Showtime Renews Lesbian
Series. The L Word, a lesbian version of Sex and the City, has been renewed for a
fifth season. The series airs on Showtime, the pay cable network owned by CBS.
More
sexed-up shows on U.S. television, report finds. U.S. television these days is loaded
with sexual content — double the number of sex scenes aired seven years ago, says a
study out Wednesday [11/9/2005]. And the number of shows that include "safer sex" messages
has leveled off, it said.
Fall
TV Preview for Red Staters. It can get discouraging out there for a red-blooded conservative
searching for good original programming without any sermons from our betters in Blue America. Walking
into the fall line-up without a guide, you're more vulnerable than a Democratic staffer at a NASCAR race.
Warning: She gives plenty of examples. Vulgar
USA. A couple of weeks ago I was felled by a particularly nasty flu. Too
sick even to read, I listened to radio and watched television for long hours every day. What
I heard and saw was not conducive to recovery. I admit to being a little "out of the loop" as
I almost never watch entertainment television on the major stations. But the level of vulgarity
that now seems utterly ordinary is just unbelievable.
Oprah promotes, and
Whoopi volunteers for irresponsible sex. We all know that sales of anything — books,
cars — skyrocket when a product is featured on Oprah. What are these "endorsements" of casual
sex going to reap? And The View, in its attempt to be hip and edgy, comes across like a bunch of
adolescents who don't know how to behave when company visits.
AFA Warns Sponsors to Separate
from 'Desperate Housewives'. A pro-family media watchdog group has announced it will
monitor advertisers on ABC's popular program "Desperate Housewives" and plans to call for a yearlong
boycott of the series' sponsors.
Al Gore, the United Nations, and the Cult of Gaia (1999):
[Scroll down] Another key player is Ted Turner, who has turned his broadcasting empire into a virtual arm of the United
Nations. A noted critic of Christianity and ambassador on behalf of the U.N. Population Fund, he promotes the
concept of Gaia in his television programs, such as the "Captain Planet" cartoon show, in which characters get
magic powers from an Earth spirit or goddess. … Turner claims personal credit for originating the concept of
the Captain Planet and the Planeteers cartoon program, which features a character "Gaia," described as "The spirit
of the planet Earth who appears to the Planeteers either in human form or as a holographic image."
The
World According to the TV Critics: What critics focus on, as an imperative, are those programs
that are defined as cutting edge, the ones that break new ground — especially if they're salacious. And
when it stars a known entity, it's a lock for a review. So it comes as no surprise that the Showtime
network's new "Californication" series has everyone's attention.
Donald Rumsfeld is like Adolf
Hitler? "A little faux pas," according to comedian Joy Behar, speaking
Tuesday [12/19/2006] about her stunning comparison a day earlier on ABC's
gabfest, "The View." "I don't think that Rumsfeld is an evil person, in his
heart," Behar told the show's audience Tuesday, appearing to take a small step back from
her controversial off-the-cuff remarks.
Caution: This article includes graphic
descriptions of the most disgusting shows on cable TV. Castration:
The Next TV Frontier. The temperature has cooled, the leaves are turning colors, and the new fall
television season has begun. Enter the mudslide. The Shock and Awe manipulators have been
unleashed to air evermore graphic sex and grotesque violence — and, predictably, a combination of
the two. The first "winner" in this race to the bottom was the FX cable channel, another sure bet.
Soap
Opera Introducing Transgender Character. In a story unusual even for a soap opera and believed
to be a television first, ABC's "All My Children" this week will introduce a transgender character who is
beginning to make the transition from a man into a woman.
The girls on The
View. These are women who pride themselves on being independent and empowered when they dress
like prostitutes (look at the view of cleavage on the View!). These are the women who watch the
View. These are the women who support Hillary Rodham Clinton. These are the women on the
show who ask Senator Clinton questions like "Do you think being a mom will help you in the White
House?" as they did on December 20.
Study Shows TV
Sexual Content Increasing, 'Safe-Sex' Themes Leveling Off. Researchers
at the Kaiser Family Foundation report that the amount of sexual
content on television today is nearly double the amount that was on in 1998. … TV
deals a lot with sex — but addresses the related risks and responsibilities
far less often.
While all America switches on the TV,
Hollywood turns to its basest instincts. There is a gay son in Desperate Housewives, a
gay mobster in The Sopranos and a gay theme night on American Idol (if songs by Queen count as
a gay theme). As for those other popular family-values shows, there are offerings about a corrupt,
murdering cop (The Shield); a corrupt murdering President (24); a polygamist businessman
and his three wives (Big Love); a misanthropic hospital doctor (House); and, of course, a prison
inmate and his sex offender sidekick (Prison Break).
Kids' TV Contains 'Dark, Sinister'
Violence, Pro-Family Advocate Warns. The Parents Television Council's director of
research and publications feels more adults need to pay attention to what their children are watching
on TV, even during after-school and Saturday morning broadcast time supposedly
dedicated to children's programming. She says many parents may be surprised to
learn that much of kids' TV is really not so much for kids anymore.
Caution: The writer goes into graphic detail to make his point about TV indecency. "Little
House" of horrors. Why did she do this? Is the "wholesome" tag such a scarlet letter in
today's Tinseltown that it requires this level of penance? Perhaps there's even more to it. Until
recently, [Melissa] Gilbert was president of the Screen Actors Guild, which has fought proposals to strengthen
protections against televised indecency. Gilbert couldn't have taken a more public stand (in this
case, in the prone position) than this disgusting stunt.
Too much
profanity on 'American Idol'. The new year's TV sensation is unmissably Fox's "American
Idol." … Two years ago, I sat down to watch an episode, not because I wanted to (I certainly
didn't), but because I felt the professional obligation. I confess: I was hooked. It
was dramatic, it was hilarious, it was heartwarming, it was professional — all the
things that make for good television. Sadly, this year, you can add another
descriptor: It's also now raunchy.
Entertainment
as indoctrination: Entertainment is the subtlest and most effective means of ideological
indoctrinating. It creates a psychological opening through which cultural messages bypass the
intellectual filters that arrest most input for critical analysis. Because the context for these
messages is "entertainment," they get a free pass into the mind's cultural framework, where they
compete, at a subconscious level, with established ethical and moral standards.
Sex, culture,
and the college student. When parents think about the pitfalls of popular culture for
their kids, they usually focus on their younger children, the innocent ones for whom it gets harder
every day to shield from an onslaught of sexual themes in everything on television and the radio,
including the commercials. Throw in the Internet, and it's surround-sound sex.
Super Bowl:
good news and bad news. During the Super Bowl, [advertisers pushed] hyper-violent
movies. For example, "Poseidon" featured a ship being overturned by a tidal wave, people
falling to their deaths, and massive explosions. How did they get around their own
guidelines? These movie trailers are now sometimes aired before the movie is formally rated.
Coming
in 2006: Group marriage TV? As another year turns, we're reminded that the
more things change, the more they stay the same. As our popular culture pushes ever further
into anything goes, we're reminded that anything-goes has certainly gone before. … Led by the usual
hallowed envelope-pushers of pay cable, Hollywood has marched ever more passionately in this decade
into chronicling and celebrating a cavalcade of alternative lifestyles.
TV's
ickiest moments of 2005. It is a rite of passage for some TV critics to take
stock of the worst of the past year's television. Entertainment Weekly Online, no nest
of prudes and scolds, has compiled its own list of the "10 moments that made us squirm the most."
Warning: The author goes into graphic descriptions of the worst stuff on television.
Poisoning
children, too? There is no market demand for this. It is clearly out of bounds,
offensive and dangerous. It shatters the innocence of childhood deliberately. And yet
there are people out there writing these scripts. … And there are people distributing it with
the goal to reach, and influence, as many millions of little boys and girls as possible.
TV's tasteless
trampling of the taboo. The Kaiser Family Foundation recently issued a new biennial study
finding that the number of sexual scenes on television has nearly doubled since 1998.
E! TV is Using 'Girls Next
Door' to Normalize the Porn Industry. Entertainment Television's show Girls
Next Door is just another example of Hollywood's attempt to normalize the porn industry
in today's culture, claims an internationally respected expert and justice consultant on the
subject. In an exclusive interview, Dr. Judith Reisman … blasted the E! TV channel
by saying, "the fact [that the network] states on its website that they are owned 49.9% by
Disney says it…all."
Radio Disney: Remove God From 'Ten
Commandments' Movie Ad. It's a movie about the Bible, but family-friendly Disney Co. is moving
heaven and earth to make sure the word "God" is stricken from some advertisements promoting an upcoming
animated film on Moses and the Ten Commandments.
Who defines "family"
values? The Family Friendly Programming Forum … has just announced its "Family Television
Awards." … Their best drama series selection was ABC's "Lost," a gripping and popular show, but also
incredibly violent. … Maybe for older teens this is acceptable. But for grade-school
children? The Family Friendly Programming Forum says it is.
The
indecency argument is over. Every national survey shows the public is absolutely
fed up with indecent, obscene, vulgar, offensive, inappropriate — you pick the
word — programming flooding the airwaves, aimed at impressionable youngsters,
and all because corporate behemoths could care less who they offend so long as they
can make a buck.
NBC
to Air Series About Dysfunctional Christian Family. A conservative advocacy group is urging
its supporters to protest an upcoming NBC television series that portrays a "completely dysfunctional
family" as models of the Christian faith.
Why
Liberals Hate Christians: Liberals in America despise Christians of true faith. They do
this because in doing so their own guilt is appeased, their anger is justified, and they can finally lay blame
for their own misery at someone else's feet. Last night Alexandra Pelosi's newest documentary, "Friends
of God" aired on HBO. In that Alexandra is the daughter of the nation's first feminist, House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi it was all too easy to pre-judge where Alexandra's work would land.
"The Book of Daniel" mocks Christianity.
NBC will air The Book of Daniel on Friday evenings, starting in early January. According to published reports,
the weekly show centers around an Episcopal priest named Daniel Webster who talks with a manifestation of Jesus. In
addition, the Webster family reportedly includes a 23-year-old homosexual, Republican son; a 16-year-old daughter who is a
drug dealer; and an adopted son involved in an improper relationship with the bishop's daughter.
Some NBC Affiliates are Closing the
Book on Daniel. Last week NBC affiliate KSNW-TV in Wichita, Kansas, decided not to air the
premiere episode of The Book of Daniel after receiving hundreds of protests. But station
management opted to air the Friday night program after getting deluged with hundreds of counter-protests.
The chickens come home to roost: NBC pulls the plug on 'Book of
Daniel'. NBC's "The Book of Daniel" may have launched to great controversy and
hoopla. But, today, the show ended with a whimper — pulled unceremoniously
from NBC's Friday night schedule, effective immediately, with no more of an announcement than an entry
on an NBC blog by creator Jack Kenny.
NBC cancels "The Book of
Daniel". NBC has canceled controversial Friday night drama "The Book of
Daniel" after only a few weeks on the air. The cancellation is blamed on low ratings
nationwide.
The Editor blurts out...
Some people will watch TV regardless of what is being shown. Unfortunately for NBC,
there aren't very many people with standards low enough to tolerate a program such
as "The Book of Daniel". I wonder how many NBC executives are now looking for work as
a result of this miscalculation.
TV's
uncontrollable urge to be gruesome: In an article in the New York Post, lead
actor Julian McMahon proclaimed of the show's sex and violence, "I'd like to be even more brutal and
more weird … I feel very lucky that we've gotten away with what we have, but I'd like to go even
further." Which his industry will, at least until the next Columbine, at which point they'll
all be oh, so upset again.
The Pond. Most
folks don't realize that many sitcoms are created not simply to entertain. They are created to drive an
agenda, to further a world-view, to break down "barriers". I've written before about how MTV has made a
big business out of manipulating our teens' minds for money, all the while pushing them further into the abyss
of an already over-sexualized culture. But parents of even the youngest children must understand that
much of today's TV programming for their tots is designed to be the first of a gradual breaking down of
sensitivities and values.
Tila
Tequila, MTV's Latest Poison. This show seemed desperately in need of a writer's strike.
Quality, however, was never necessary. The lack thereof was — and it worked. It scored
first place on cable among MTV's desired demographic of 18- to 34-year-olds. What Viacom also knows, and
had absolutely no qualms about, is that this sex-obsessed show would also play well with junior-high and
high-school kids, and grade-school children, too.
The arrested
adolescent's channel. Nothing is sacred at Comedy Central. The cable channel has
perfected the formula of mocking positively everything, to find the final frontier of offensiveness
and smash it to bits. … There is a network formula here — shock equals publicity equals
ratings — and Comedy Central thrives on it.
DISHing Low. On
one recent night I made a command decision regarding my TV remote: It won't click over to
G4 Tech TV if my young son is anywhere within earshot of the TV. I made that decision
after watching about 30 seconds of Xplay, ostensibly a show that reviews video games. And
the hosts do review games. But while handing down their verdicts, they also manage to curse
like sailors for no apparent reason.
Gay-per-view? TV Network for Gays,
Lesbians to Debut. Unlike other gay-oriented networks, Logo will not be
pay-per-view; it will be be fed into homes via cable networks whether consumers want it
or not.
TV infested
by "weeds". Showtime, the pay-cable giant owned by Viacom, must be seeking
a perfect schedule of "edgy" sleaze. … Isn't it somewhat perverse that our tax dollars
need to go to drug-prevention messages on television, in part to counter our drug-glamorizing
TV programs?
The sleaze
subsidizers: Even though blame for increasingly offensive TV programming is
properly assigned to producers, writers, networks, and even viewers, sponsors bankroll
shows with graphic sexual content, foul language and violence, and therefore also share
responsibility. Without the advertising dollars, the raunch would never air.
PTC Announces
Top Ten Best/Worst Advertisers. The PTC tracked products advertised
on all of primetime broadcast television and select original cable programs between
January 2004 and January 2005. Companies were ranked on the best or worst list
based on how frequently their ads appeared on family-friendly programs versus programs
containing high levels of sex, foul language, and violence.
FCC
Accused of Discounting TV Indecency Complaints. The federal agency charged with
enforcing the nation's broadcast indecency laws now stands accused of discounting complaints
from tens of thousands of citizens because those complaints were submitted with the aid and urging
of advocacy groups supporting tougher enforcement. Conflicting data regarding citizen complaints
has resulted in some groups questioning the credibility of the FCC, which is responsible for
enforcing broadcast decency standards.
FCC: Wilder
than the newspapers. The FCC seems to be saying that only actual nudity or
actual sexual situations on broadcast television are offensive enough to trigger remedial
action. You can talk about anything you want, and focus entire hours of TV programming
on raunchy sexual subject matter, as long as you don't show actual sex. That's a sad
abandonment of the FCC's responsibility to uphold community standards.
Mary Kay's
crime pays. Webster's Dictionary defines famous as "widely known," but
also "honored for achievement," while infamous is defined as "having a reputation of
the worst kind," a synonym for "disgraceful." In the big business of celebrity
journalism today, there is no discernible difference between fame and infamy.
Media
Morality - Does It Even Exist? Since the 2004 presidential election, the
nation has been abuzz with the increased influence of "morality" in the voting preferences
of Americans. Eleven states voted to reject homosexual "marriage," Florida denied
abortion for minors without parental notification, and gambling initiatives were repeatedly
struck down. Why is this so surprising? Perhaps it is because, at first glance,
one may not guess that we are a moral nation. Look at the TV shows, the music, the
movies that we consume for entertainment. The recent trend in politics does not
reflect the spiraling culture in which we find ourselves.
Televised fiction acts as a commercial for big government. The brilliance of today's TV
characters: The most impressive and competent individuals on the small screen today, I think bar
none, are those who work for the government, particularly in the intelligence and national security
fields. It seems fair to say that not everyone would regard this as a true-to-life reflection of the
current situation.
Pro-Family
Groups Continue Push to Rein in Media Indecency. Pro-family and media
watchdog organizations are urging President Bush to appoint a new chairman to the
Federal Communications Commission who "is committed to enforcing indecency laws." In
a Jan. 31 letter to Bush, Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media, urged the
selection of a new chairman who believes that "the breakdown of standards on TV and
radio is a 'moral values' problem we cannot ignore." The letter was co-signed by
representatives of 53 pro-family and decency groups.
Study
links teen sex to TV sexual content. Young people who watched a lot of
television with sexual content were about twice as likely to start having intercourse
during the subsequent year as those with little exposure to televised sex, researchers
found. "Exposure to TV that included only talk about sex was associated with the
same risks as exposure to TV that depicted sexual behavior," said Rand Corp. behavioral
scientist Rebecca Collins and colleagues.
Violence and Promiscuity Set the Stage for
Television's Moral Collapse. Long hailed as the cheapest form of family entertainment,
television has cost us our imagination, our conversation, and our children's innocence. As Dr. George
Gerbner puts it, "The roles [young people] grow into are no longer home-made, hand-crafted, and community
inspired." Instead, they are developing a worldview based on television and not their own experience.
Sex and the TV-watching
teen: While smoking remains legal for adults, it's off limits to children, and cigarette
advertising would decidedly entice youngsters to dabble in that vice. It's a simple, cause-and-effect
argument. In that vein, it should not be surprising that Rebecca Collins and a team of researchers at the
RAND Corporation have discovered a similar pattern for prime-time television's nearly omnipresent patter about
sex, sex, sex.
Is sweeps month lesbian
month? In this sweeps month of February, all the other networks are pumping up the lesbian
themes for much more cynical ratings-grabbing reasons, with hormone-bursting teens as one target
audience. Sweeps month is always the time to ramp up the "edgy" factor, which is the perpetual
problem. How far will the networks have to go to locate the frontier of "edgy" for the next sweeps
period?
Yearning
for the middle. The culture war is about the raunchiness that seeps into everyday
life, entertainments that appeal to the lowest common denominator among us. In defining
deviancy down, in the memorable phrase of the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, sexual explicitness,
nearly always vulgar and trashy, is thrown in the faces of everyone.
CBS's other mess:
Luckily for America, the FCC didn't buy the notion that CBS had no idea it was about to stun the country from
one football-crazy coast to the other. It's easy to forget that MTV — CBS's sister corporation
that produced this debacle — almost immediately boasted about the stunt on its Website.
Summer's
pop music meltdown: Want a primer on societal meltdown? Then turn
on the Top 40 pop station in any town, and sample the cultural depths
to which too much of today's popular music has sunk.
Top
10 Best and Worst Network TV Shows for Family Viewing. Each year, the
Parents Television Council rates the best and the worst shows on primetime television on the
seven major broadcast networks. The PTC Best and Worst list does not examine artistic
quality. But it measures series' appropriateness for family audiences from a content
perspective.
"Buffy" and "Will & Grace" cleared of
indecency. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Will & Grace" came up clean as far as the FCC is
concerned, as it rejected indecency complaints filed by two conservative-leaning interest groups against the
popular syndicated TV shows. The complaints filed by the Parent Television Council and Americans for
Decency were dismissed in a 5-0 vote.
Oprah
Winfrey: Agent of Moral Insanity. Oprah Winfrey, widely
cited as one of the most influential and admired women in America, showed
herself to be an agent of moral insanity when she featured a program celebrating
young children who are seeking sex-change procedures and transgender identities. In
one episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," the true nature of our modern sexual
confusion was made clear, and the broadcast should long be
remembered as one of the most frightening hours in television history.
The media
joins the Big Lie game. Bush and Cheney have in fact been careful not to claim
that Iraq and Al Qaeda collaborated on 9-11. Yet Democrats and many in
the media claim they have.
Montel Williams & Me: You
don't realize how much shows like this are choreographed until you're actually on
one. Despite the seemingly spontaneous nature of the dialog and the audience's
reaction, virtually every moment of applause is cued by a member of the show's staff.
NBC
Show Hides Truth About Abortion Industry. Law and Order: Criminal
Intent, NBC's popular extension of its Emmy Award-winning series Law and
Order, has proven itself a purveyor of pro-abortion propaganda. The episode
titled "The Third Horseman," which aired January 6, was filled with pro-abortion
rhetoric, anti-right-to-life sentiment, and distrustful attitudes toward
Bible-believing Christians.
Radio's
Summer smut: [N]early every morning radio show is pushing sex, sex and
more sex — and the more outrageous, the better.
How CNN
Creates The News: How many families do you know that live in
a "compound"? My dictionary defines a compound as "an enclosed area used for confining
prisoners of war." But in the liberal media handbook, "compound" means any dwelling where
God and guns are present. It's a loaded word used to conjure up images of white separatists
and religious sects.
Getting
"queasy" at the FCC: [H]ow many times has the FCC fined a TV station or
network for violating decency standards? None. Try and find one.
(Warning: He's right, but this article contains rather
extensive descriptions of broadcast filth.)
Is there
a broadcast standard? Where is our popular culture located in this age
of expanded sexual consciousness, and its byproduct, shrunken periods of innocent
childhood? Does mass culture have a gatekeeper anymore? Hollywood used to have a
voluntary code of conduct for movies and TV, but those are now forgotten relics. TV
networks used to have broadcast standards and practices departments, but nobody seems
to be practicing hard at upholding standards.
Real
Reality: "Reality" TV is out of control. Cameras have faithfully recorded
everything from contestants eating rats to foolish women marrying for money, and soon
French TV will show live action in — you guessed it — a brothel. I have an idea to put
all those cameras to good use, in a way that will benefit the citizenry.
Harsh
Reality TV: The entertainment television business isn't just based
on ratings, it's based on profits. Some of the biggest TV hits of our time, like
"Friends," see their profits diluted by star salaries commanding $1 million per major
character per episode. It helps you understand the appeal to network executives for
"reality" shows, where willing human camera fodder will do the most ridiculous things
for next to nothing more than the chance to be televised. It's the latest in cheap ego
massage: I am televised, therefore I am.
New web site: One Million Dads. The
networks and sponsors don't care what their programming is doing to our children. The only thing
they care about is making money. Here is what Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney (which owns ABC),
had to say about respecting children: "We have no obligation to make history. We have no
obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement. To make money is our
only obligation."
(Would Walt Disney have agreed?)
Black
Isn't a Personality Type: Should producers cast "token" black
characters in order to avoid the charge that their show is "all-white?"
Political Correctness Imprisons Speedy
Gonzales: From Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, to Wile E. Coyote's Roadrunner-catching Acme
ingenuity, Warner Brothers' hilarious Looney Tunes have filled generations of Americans with innocent
childlike laughter. Unfortunately, political correctness run amok is depriving future generations
of one unforgettable toon. The Cartoon Network, a subsidiary of AOL-Time Warner, has shelved
all 40 six-minute Speedy Gonzales shorts.
What's
a parent, anyway? A new book called "The Other Parent: The Inside
Story of the Media's Effect on Our Children" is written by a liberal professor
and features an afterword by a member of the Clinton family. So should
conservatives consider it radioactive? At times it's wrongheaded -- even to
the point of shrillness -- but it does have some superb moments. In the final
analysis, it's a provocative read.
New Police TV Drama Masks
"Pornography," Ex-Officer Charges: A top official at a national police organization calls the
controversial new FX cable network police drama, The Shield, "pornographic" and believes it does a
disservice to the men and women in blue.
Studies Show TV Affects
Children: Years of studies and worries about the effects of violent and immoral
programming on children have accomplished nothing. The entertainment media are worse than
ever. Violent and immoral behavior among teens is escalating. New studies are
increasingly able to link the programming and behavior.
Networks Plan on
Blaspheming God — Most Shocking TV Season Ever: ABC, CBS and NBC are considering
dropping many of the few remaining standards on network prime-time TV programs — and will likely
allow expletives and four-letter words never spoken before on broadcast TV.
Lower
TV Standards Draw Mixed Response: Reports that new television shows
this fall will include more expletives, sexuality and profanities involving God's name
are drawing mixed responses from conservatives and industry observers. Some see
the prime time programming as further evidence of the coarsening of American society,
while others point to the 2002 network lineup as an opportunity to promote
the responsibility of parents to monitor what their children watch on television. [It is both.]
Clearing the AirWaves: The FCC may
be the official arbiter of decency for the nation's airwaves, but frankly, Homer Simpson has
greater influence over what goes on the air. It's called the Simpsons' Rule: "If they
say it on 'The Simpsons,' we can say it on the air."
Tuned
In, Turned Off, and Ticked Off, Too: The Culture and Family Institute - an affiliate of
Concerned Women for America (CWA) - has released a report accusing the FCC of failing to crack down on
broadcasters who allow foul language, sexual innuendo, and partial nudity to air during prime time.
Triumph of the Vulgarians.
[A]s Lee Siegel wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal, vulgarity has become so common in the culture that there's nothing
rebellious about it anymore. Elvis's below-the-belt gyrations were taboo-breaking and suggestive. Today, there's nothing
suggestive about Miley Cyrus. Nobody watching her twerk thinks, "I wonder what she's getting at?" Indeed, if there's any
larger message to her routine, it is simply to announce that the exception has now become the rule: Vulgarity is expected,
decency a surprise.
Violence on Prime
Time Broadcast TV. Concerns about the impact of television violence on society are almost as old
as the medium itself. As early as 1952, the United States House of Representatives was holding hearings
to explore the impact of television violence and concluded that the "television broadcast industry was a
perpetrator and a deliverer of violence."
Foul Language on
Prime Time Network TV. The connection between media violence and real life violence has been well
documented. The consensus of the scientific and mental health communities is that children are profoundly
influenced by the violent images they see on television and in films. Constant exposure to media violence
can result in aggressive, anti-social behavior, and even violent outbursts.
Hollywood's
Ridiculous Lawyers. When Justice Stevens asked if there were changes in community standards over
the last 30 years, if society had grown more tolerant of curse words, Carter Phillips, the profanity-favoring
attorney for Fox, proclaimed: "I believe that society is significantly more tolerant of these words today
than it was 30 years ago." Justice Scalia replied: "Do you think your clients have had
anything to do with that?" The answer is, of course, self-evident. There is no greater cultural
influence on impressionable youth than the entertainment industry.
Racy TV shows linked to higher
teenage pregnancy rates. Groundbreaking research suggests that pregnancy rates are much
higher among teens who watch a lot of TV with sexual dialogue and behavior than among those who have
tamer viewing tastes. "Sex and the City" ... was one of the shows used in the research.
The
Frustrated Family Hour. Since 2000-2001, violent content during the family hour has increased
52 percent. Sexual content is up 22 percent. Foul language is down 25 percent
since 2000-2001. But wait. The decrease is almost entirely due to the drop in less objectionable
words…. The major curse words have hardly declined at all, just 3 percent.
The Editor says...
Television (and radio, for that matter) can only provide inexpensive family entertainment in a country where
either (a) the producers of broadcast programs have the self-control and common decency to present only
G-rated shows and (b) the viewing public tolerates only the most benign material. These conditions
have not been met in the U.S. since the 1960's. There is no "Family Hour." Prime-time television,
with rare exceptions, is a cesspool of tawdry and salacious pap that would have been considered "unfit for
broadcast" as recently as the 1970s.
As you might expect, there is offensive language throughout this article. More Than Ever, You Can Say That on
Television. Ever since George Carlin laid out the "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" in 1972,
television writers and broadcasters have been digging more deeply into the thesaurus, seizing on new ways to titillate,
if not offend.
Networks Plan on Blaspheming
God — Most Shocking TV Season Ever: ABC, CBS and NBC are considering dropping many of the
few remaining standards on network prime-time TV programs — and will likely allow expletives and
four-letter words never spoken before on broadcast TV.
Violence on Prime
Time Broadcast TV. Concerns about the impact of television violence on society are almost as old
as the medium itself. As early as 1952, the United States House of Representatives was holding hearings
to explore the impact of television violence and concluded that the "television broadcast industry was a
perpetrator and a deliverer of violence."
Foul Language on
Prime Time Network TV. The connection between media violence and real life violence has been well
documented. The consensus of the scientific and mental health communities is that children are profoundly
influenced by the violent images they see on television and in films. Constant exposure to media violence
can result in aggressive, anti-social behavior, and even violent outbursts.
Sex Loses its
Appeal. For years conventional wisdom in Hollywood has been that "sex sells," and the more, the
better. That mantra has been reflected in increasingly frequent and increasingly graphic depictions of
sex on television. But does sex really attract more viewers? In recent years, countless surveys
have shown that not only are parents increasingly concerned about how exposure to sexual content is affecting
their children, but even adults are turned-off by the rampant sex on TV.
This might be a case of over-analysis... The Use of Offensive Language by
Men and Women in Prime Time Television Entertainment. A content analysis examined prime-time
television entertainment programs aired on 7 broadcast networks during the 2001 season. Profanity use
within inter-sex and intra-sex interactions was explored. Swearing occurred most often in man-to-man
interactions, followed by women-to-men. Men and women tended to use mild curse words more when talking
to the opposite sex. Unmarried women more often directed expletives at both men and women; unmarried men
cursed more at other men. Offensive language was most often met by a neutral response; men and women were
equally likely to respond positively and negatively to cursing. Men in feature roles, as compared to
minor roles, used more profanity when speaking to men and women.
Parents
group criticizes heavy sexual content on TV. On a recent episode of the CBS comedy "Two and a Half
Men," it is implied that Jake, the teenage son of Alan's character, is having threesomes with some of his female
classmates. Like everything else in the raunchy sitcom, it is played for laughs and no actual sexual acts
are depicted. Not laughing, though, is the Parents Television Council.
Bad Advice: What TV Parents Teach Their Children About Sex - A
two-part series on television's portrayal of parents. Part 1Part 2
