SpeakSpeak News

Leave it to ex-gay expert Warren Throckmorton (PhD!) to snag an interview with the reclusive Mrs. SquarePants. Turns out she’s fed up at all these gay rumors.

“Look,” she says, “sponges go with the flow, and we are sponges. So we are incensed that Dr. Dobson would call my Bobby gay. He is not gay, and I resent Dr. Dobson trying to use him as a political tool.”

Read the entire interview with the sassy sponge.

The FCC has just announced that it’s denied complaints against the FX show “Nip/Tuck.”

We deny complaints received from individuals who have alleged that the television program “Nip/Tuck,” shown on the FX Network, or various episodes of the program, violate federal restrictions regarding indecent and obscene material. As set forth below, the Commission has indicated that it does not regulate cable indecency or indecency on satellite subscription
services, so we deny that aspect of the complaints. Moreover, nothing in the record indicates that
“Nip/Tuck” meets the legal test for obscenity, so we deny that aspect of the complaints as well.

Question is: Why did they investigate when they don’t regulate cable in the first place…?

The debate: Is the movie obscene? Some say “ban it.” Others say “show it.”

Says one observer: “There is an increase in religiosity and evangelism. An inability to distinguish between religion and culture has become the norm.”

Says another: “The church has always supported artistic expression. But when a movie tries to denigrate a community, poison the minds of people, then the church has to step in. It’s not a fight of the clergy. It reflects the sentiments of the community as a whole.”

Sound familiar?

It should. But this one’s from India.

When it happens across the globe, it’s “repression.” When it happens at home, it’s “family values.”

Read “Freeing Speech of Its Sins” in The Times of India.

Tunisia, this year’s host of World Summit on the Information Society, is practicing its censorship skills in preparation of the November conference.

The government has blocked internet access to the opposition Progressive Democratic Party, as well as to Radio Non Grata, a website set up to report on the summit.

The conference is to address, among other things, freedom of expression on the Internet.

When it happens across the globe, it’s repression. When it happens here, it’s “family values.”

Via the International Freedom of Expression Exchange.

A House subcommittee has fast-tracked a bill that would codify the legality of technology that allows home viewers to skip objectionable content on DVDs.

Some DVD players are currently marketed with the software, but Hollywood claims the technology leads to copyright infringement.

In Wired News

MediaWeek reports that Congressman Joe Barton has “clarified” legislators’ intent to point their censorship wands at cable TV.

“What we didn’t say is that we want to set standards on premium pay television – things like, like the issue that I’ve been asked, the Sopranos or something, some program of that nature,” quoth Barton.

Elsewhere, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Tim Goodman notes that HBO’s new season of “Deadwood” is surprisingly prescient about the turn of events.

The Chicago Tribune reports on the proliferation of “viewer discretion” warnings.

Warning: Reader Discretion Advised