Posted on 11/09/2005 5:36:21 PM PST by Pikamax
Sen. Obama Warns TV to Clean Up or Congress Will Act By Doug Halonen
If the industry doesn't take significant steps to make it easier for parents to control what their children view on television, Congress will step in and legislate. That was a warning shot fired by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in a speech Wednesday in Washington.
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"The amount of questionable content spilling across our screens is growing by the year," Sen. Obama said at a press conference to release a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation that says the number of sex scenes on TV has been increasing dramatically over the past several years.
"Once again, we find ourselves asking those in charge to serve the needs of a nation that has a higher calling than simply peddling indecency and materialism for profit," the senator said.
The study, which examined a representative example of broadcast and cable TV network shows, said that 70 percent of programs included some sexual content this year (with an average of five sex scenes per hour), while only 56 percent did so in 1998 (with 3.2 sex scenes per hour). Among shows that had sexual content, the study said, 14 percent this year included a reference to sexual risks or responsibilities, up from 9 percent in 1998.
But Sen. Obama said he is particularly concerned about the impact television is having on the ability of parents to instill positive values in their children. "Raising your children this way has become exceedingly difficult in a mass media culture that saturates our airwaves with a steady stream of sex, violence and materialism," he said.
Some of you guys are only for freedom when it suits you. Don't pretend like your 14 year old will instantly go on a dick sucking spree if she hears a crude joke on Fox. If you teach them right and wrong then they should have zero problems dealing with situations when it comes up.
He does not care about the content, only the control.
Lenin would be proud of his American acolyte.
You're a tool. This is an irrelevant, empty issue, an issue that allows Senators to beat their chests and pretend that they're solving a problem when all their doing is compounding it, while the sheeple lap it up and go to bed happy.
Wonder what he thinks about homosexual glorification shows like Will & Grace?
A world class athlete on the Jamaican bobsled team is still but one member of a losing team...
What this is about is Obama cynically trying to pretend that he's not the liberal scumbag that he actually is. He's just trying to clean himself up for a shot at the ticket in '08. That's all this is. No biggie.
Not really. Censorship was always one of the liberals' strong points in their tyrannical ideology.
Typical...
Punish the suppliers...
Why doesnt this wingnut force a supply side solution...?
Force everyone to own TEVO and balm it with a mandatory TEVO training that shows you how to filter out 'Radical' right wing propoganda like FOX?
Idiot leftist pandering drivel...
This country is going to hell in a handbasket and we all have ringside seats...
Not exactly. I'll let you sleep on that thought.
No, they're not.
How so?
You tell me. I just wish the government would stay the hell out of my bedroom, my backpocket, and my living room.
Yo, Oboomah - bite me, a$$wipe.
I learned that on TV.
It's called bringing awareness to a problem. And the "tool" is the entertainment industry which doesn't care how they influence children.
Right. So if you don't like the technology that will be added to give consumers a choice of what they their children view, don't buy one! (You don't need one for survival).
In a little town, when the strip clubs and massage parlors move in and suddenly a low element appears and respectable folks have to walk a mile out of their way to get to where they want, eventually, in a town that hasn't thrown itself over to lowbrow mob rule, it will pull itself together and the town elders will convene, write a zoning law and get rid of the crap. They don't say "well, mother and Johnny will just do the noble thing and walk an extra forty blocks to get to school" so as to protect the rights of the scumbags. They say "hell, it's our town, we pay the taxes and we don't like that crap because it is ruining our image, affecting our people, and lowering our standard of morality" and they do something about it.
In fact it is actually a very leftist notion to think that the town square can't have any standards of morality and decency. As they posit, those standards of morality and decency flow from religious ethics (which they do: Judeo Christian, in fact) and, the leftists would have it, by golly there can't be any whiff of religion in anything associated with the government. Thus, with this mindset, they have stripped every aspect of our public square: schools, town lawns, government buildings, of the very real cultural artifacts which may have a whiff of religious heritage: they now control the public square.
You may tolerate this if you want to, I do not choose to do so. And Barak Obama has put his finger on the essentially moral judeo/christian pulse of the country and come up with a winning, and, I repeat, essentially republican family values issue. V's wife.
Sorry, I disagree. I think he's a phony and very creepy.
Well, disagreement is what makes FR so much fun.
Senator Obama isn't a big fan of the **Bleep** Van **Bleep** Show.
Yes, there is a way, pay for only the channels you want. Of course, the tv execs won't go for that. Lets say I only want Fox news and the history channel. I shouldn't have to pay for the local stations or any other channel I don't want, like gay tv or MTV or whatever else they force into my home. Because of this, I choose not to watch tv, except for important political events or news, but only on Foxnews. Also, aren't there controls on televisions to block out unwanted channels, so, if you don't have cable television, you can block any channels or tv programming you don't want to use.
Those examples you sited, are they any different than having to explain to a 5-6 year old what the impeached president did in the oval office? That was all over the place, and the president of the US for crying out loud. Or what about the super bowl wardrobe 'malfunction'. Our society is forced by a select few who decide what's appropriate, and personally, I won't be part of it. Until morality is brought back into our standards, it's just going to get worse. I don't think government is the solution, but if they're going to crack down, why not start at the root cause, those that market and produce this junk? And like many said, it's almost as bad as porn. So, instead of worrying about what's on, I don't worry, I don't watch.
And those with young kids, rent movies, or spongebob, or whatever the current kids shows are (not seaseme street, too pc for my taste), there really isn't anything worthwhile for kids either anymore. So, why bother? Until society changes it's moral compass, it's only going to get worse.
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