Was reading Digg today, and found a link to an article about decency. Or more specifically, an interview of a person who wrote a book about decency in America.
The upshot of it all seems to be that there is a war going on in America. A Decency War (C). This war is taking place between the religious right (a crusade against sex and nudity and such) and people who want boobs on TV.
One of the basic premises of the book seems to be that this war has been increasing in intensity over the past 30 years or so. The author seems to think that, while the issue has been around for a while, people haven't cared about it much before now.
Now, sex has been around for a while. And for as long as it has been around, sex has been described in whatever medium men had at hand. I also think that there have always been people who cared about whether or not their children had access to this media.
The change that's happened over the last 30 years isn't with the issue, or with people's opinions on it. I think that the difference we've seen over recent decades is one towards reliance on our government.
To quote the author of the book in question, "the breast-baring accidents of Hollywood actors such as Faye Emerson and Jayne Mansfield did not result in any mass campaigns for 'family values.'" This is true, but not because people didn't care.
If people have a problem with what is on TV, they should turn off the TV. Media is not forced upon us. If popular media has become too objectionable - (and, for the record, I think that popular media reflects popular culture - not the other way around) - then we should disconnect ourselves from the popular media.
But Americans today (even the radical right-wing religious folks) have become too dependent on their government. They don't have the balls to remove themselves from the popular media - they want big brother to do it for them.
Showing posts with label censorship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label censorship. Show all posts
2006-10-11
2006-05-04
I'm still alive?
It's pretty shocking to realize that it's been two and a half months since I last posted here. In my defense, I'd like to say that it only seemed like a week or so.
I'm finally done with classes, so I can concentrate on more important things - like taking classes over the summer, and working.
As the news clips on my home page change daily, there are a few issues that I have cared enough about to mention here.
As an off-and-on South Park watcher, I appreciate the writers' abilities to use satire to comment on current issues. I managed to catch Cartoon Wars Part II on Comedy Central the first day it aired. If you haven't heard anything about it yet, you can click the link, but long story short - Comedy Central censored an animated image of Muhammad giving a salmon covered football to Peter Griffin of Family Guy.
I really don't know what to say about that one - Comedy Central folded. I was disappointed. I could rant a bit about how much other stuff South Park has gotten away with without censorship, but that's not really the point. The cable channels should be able to show what they want to - if people don't like it, they won't watch.
What is disturbing is Comedy Central giving in to terrorist threats, letting them win.
I would recommend that you watch that episode (Cartoon Wars) if you get the opportunity.
Here is a direct link to a Windows Media Video of the unedited clip of Muhammad from Part II. (1.05MB)
I'm finally done with classes, so I can concentrate on more important things - like taking classes over the summer, and working.
As the news clips on my home page change daily, there are a few issues that I have cared enough about to mention here.
As an off-and-on South Park watcher, I appreciate the writers' abilities to use satire to comment on current issues. I managed to catch Cartoon Wars Part II on Comedy Central the first day it aired. If you haven't heard anything about it yet, you can click the link, but long story short - Comedy Central censored an animated image of Muhammad giving a salmon covered football to Peter Griffin of Family Guy.
I really don't know what to say about that one - Comedy Central folded. I was disappointed. I could rant a bit about how much other stuff South Park has gotten away with without censorship, but that's not really the point. The cable channels should be able to show what they want to - if people don't like it, they won't watch.
What is disturbing is Comedy Central giving in to terrorist threats, letting them win.
I would recommend that you watch that episode (Cartoon Wars) if you get the opportunity.
Here is a direct link to a Windows Media Video of the unedited clip of Muhammad from Part II. (1.05MB)
2006-02-15
Censorsh*p
Browsing my RSS feeds this evening, I stumbled upon an interesting read. Apparently, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft got raked over the coals recently by Congress.
There's already been controversy surrounding the major internet search players recently-developed versions of their page for Chinese citizens - created in cooperation with China's censorship policies.
China filters thousands of web pages from it's citizens. Though it seems to have blocked a few random porn pages for some reason, it's main focus seems to be blocking out news and other information (including, for unknown reasons, pages on homosexuality and sexually transmitted diseases). I tried to find a list of pages that were known to be blocked, and found some good information from a study done at Harvard. It includes a page devoted to some of the highlights of the web pages filtered by China. The website choices range from confounding, to angering.
Anyway, Google appears to be blocking everything China wants them to, and more - why they block the home pages of some beer producers, I have no idea. More information on the random website blockage on CNet News.
Google's now-famous motto ("Don't be evil") has been getting thrown around a lot in light of their recent flirting with China. I don't know, no matter how badly you want to be providing services to China's huge population, this seems like too much bad publicity - why would an internet staple like Google want to get in bed with a government so concerned with blocking the Internet from it's citizens?
There's already been controversy surrounding the major internet search players recently-developed versions of their page for Chinese citizens - created in cooperation with China's censorship policies.
China filters thousands of web pages from it's citizens. Though it seems to have blocked a few random porn pages for some reason, it's main focus seems to be blocking out news and other information (including, for unknown reasons, pages on homosexuality and sexually transmitted diseases). I tried to find a list of pages that were known to be blocked, and found some good information from a study done at Harvard. It includes a page devoted to some of the highlights of the web pages filtered by China. The website choices range from confounding, to angering.
Anyway, Google appears to be blocking everything China wants them to, and more - why they block the home pages of some beer producers, I have no idea. More information on the random website blockage on CNet News.
Google's now-famous motto ("Don't be evil") has been getting thrown around a lot in light of their recent flirting with China. I don't know, no matter how badly you want to be providing services to China's huge population, this seems like too much bad publicity - why would an internet staple like Google want to get in bed with a government so concerned with blocking the Internet from it's citizens?
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