Thursday, June 15, 2006

If They Put an Orgy on TV and Nobody Watches It…

…does the network get fined $3.3 million because people complain?

The answer, of course, is yes. 4,221 people associated with the Parent’s Television Council (pretty much the only people who complain about the appropriateness of any TV programming) contacted the FCC about offensive content in a recent episode of Without a Trace. The catch is (besides the fact that the FCC shouldn’t be regulating content anyway) that only two (yes, the number 2) of the people bitching about it actually saw the show – they just heard about it from a PTC e-mail. In a commendable move, CBS is fighting back, calling the claim invalid. I really liked Kerry Howley’s take on this:

It's amazing how 4,221 people can manage to avoid watching such programming, even as our all-powerful CBS overlords strap us down, tape our eyes open, and beam offensive images into our soft brains.

All this comes on the heels of Bush signing a new bill today that greatly increases fines on broadcasters for showing 'indecent' material (whatever that might mean). And, incredibly, as he's signing this bill, our moralist-in-chief had this to say:

"In our free society, parents have the final responsibility over the television shows that their children watch, or the websites they visit, or the music they listen to. That's a responsibility of moms and dads all across the country, to make sure their children are listening to or watching the right kind of programming."

Exactly. So remind me again why do we need a bill like this?

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