There's an awful lot of stuff I dislike that I would just as soon NOT see the Federal government called in to suppress by force of law. If that's what you mean by "defending", then don't be so surprised.
It's not a matter of defending the program; it is a matter of defending our freedom to choose. You may find it repugnant, others may not. You are not the one to make that decision for others. Provided it does not violate the law, the marketplace should decide, period.
I'm not defending the program. I've never seen the show, nor plan to.
It's a lesser of two evils choice for me. The bigger evil is government deciding what goes on the airwaves.
The best solution here is for "indecent" shows to go off the air by the market forces. If I despise a show. I don't watch it. If I really hate it, I'll write letters to the network, and also to the advertisers of the network. I don't like the gay lobby, but they are masters at this technique and are using it against Dr. Laura and Michael Savage, and I respect their tactics there if nothing else.
Exactly!
If you determine that the material is filth and/or unsuitable, the material may very well become a part of the unavoidable environment in which you, your children, and their children must live. Any resulting REAL depravity, any resulting REAL violent tendencies, or any resulting social damages done to our culture are very real damages done to us IN SPITE OF our choosing to avoid the filth, garbage, violent material.
I realize the problem of setting the lines as to what should or shouldn't be allowed. I suggest that it be the same as concerning pornography and the the judges definition - "I know it when I see it". It worked in the past and it can work now. In fact, if you think about it, there IS a system of this kind of line "drawing" now, it is only a question of how extreme the positioning of the line is or is not. I mean, where are the sitcoms about "families" of groups of 3 or more men who adopt young boys for the sole reason of anal intercourse? Where are all the hip new shows about young teenage girls who only find fulfillment by having group sex with entire athletic teams? Where are the cool shows about creative torture? Where are they? They are behind a line that naturally exists and always will. I insist that that a HUGE quantity of existing programming is beyond that line of decency and social responsibility. I insist that shows like the original in question (as well as probably over 50% of existing commercial TV) is past that line. In fact, I think a process of slowly "sliding toes" past that line has made commercial TV the load of decadent garbage that it is. We certainly shouldn't be surprised when the same lack of morality, the same lack of standards of decency, and the same lack of common goodness is reflected in our society. Likewise, wee shouldn't be surprised with the problems interjected by continual exposure to such decadence, indecency and lack of morality. Everywhere around you will be the effects of this travesty.
Either you decide to have no line and declare that ANYthing is allowed - in other words, kill your society - or you decide that the line, that will exist in any other case, should be drawn in a manner that will support decency and oppose chaos and decadence. That there is any debate about this at all is the stunning surprise to me.