SpeakSpeak News

The FCC is again pointing out that it does not regulate cable (yet). Still, today it officially denied obscenity complaints filed against CNN coverage of the 2004 Democratic Convention.

Producers accidentally left a microphone open, and the open mike accidentally picked up the anguished cries of a production official witnessing a disastrous balloon failure.

FCC statement.

Texas House member Al Edwards (Harris County) has introduced a bill that would outlaw “sexually suggestive” performances by at school events. The bill would apply to “a school dance team, drill team, cheerleading team, or similar performance group”

Offending groups would be prohibited from performing for the remainder of the school year, and offending school districts would have state education funding reduced by an amount an education commissioner “determines appropriate.”

The bill does not attempt to define “sexually suggestive.” Splits, anyone?

Read HB 1476.

A 24-year-old school cop was placed on adminstrative leave for having an “L-Word” screensaver on her workplace computer. The screensaver contained non-explicit images of actresses who portray lesbians on Showtime.

The sheriff’s department has impounded her computer. The superintendent has asked for her to be replaced.

When you’re in an open school and you work around kids, you need to put them first.” the superintendent said. “In this case, I don’t think she did.”

From ChannelCincinnati.

From the This-Can’t-Be-A-Good-Idea department:

NBC will air a sitcom pilot starring Jesus as a sort of guardian angel to a pill-popping priest.

Reuters reports that NBC entertainment exec Kevin Reilly said NBC was inspired by the runaway success of religion-themed novels like the “Left Behind” series and Mel Gibson’s movie “The Passion of the Christ.”

From Reuters (via I Want Media).

The city of Savannah threatened to revoke the business licenses of vendors selling merchandise “that depicts genitalia, nudity, sex acts or images or language deemed to be lewd or offensive” during the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. No word yet on whether any vendors got dinged.

SavannahNow.

An American Family Association representative in Michigan has taken a middle school to task for allowing an eighth-grader to publish a story about the Wiccan religion.

“We brought this to the Midland School Board’s attention,” [AFA rep Gary] Glenn says. “The principal said she agreed that it was inappropriate and would take steps in the future to make sure that it would not happen again. But we’ve made it an issue in the community in hopes that it will serve as an object lesson for school officials in all schools in the city and, hopefully, the entire state.”

According to Agape Press, “Glenn says he has warned the school district of the dangers associated with neopagan religious practices, many of which have been documented by law enforcement and the media. For instance, he notes, a female public school teacher in the town of Muskegon recently married a 14-year-old student in a Wiccan ceremony and sexually molested the child. And just two weeks ago in Ohio, a Wiccan couple was convicted of murdering a 13-month-old baby.”

“We think it also runs the risk of potential legal liability for the public school,” Glenn adds. “If a student perceives his or her school to be encouraging the practice of witchcraft and, based on reliance on that understanding, actually does engage in witchcraft and then comes to some kind of harm, we think the school district could be held liable.”

Glenn neglected to cite statistics on Christians accused/convicted of heinous crimes, like for instance, this guy, this guy, and this guy.

In Agape Press.

Three movie producers in India were arrested on obscenity charges this week – because “posters of the movie splashed all over the city are obscene and the catch-line on husband swapping is quite vulgar.”

In the Times of India.

The AP is reporting that maverick Congressman Bernie Sanders is drafting a bill that would prohibit the government from censoring cable and internet content – services that are opt-in and subscription-based.

WASHINGTON, Vt. Vermont US Congressman Bernard Sanders is drafting legislation that would keep the government from censoring content available on cable and satellite television and the Internet. Sanders says he’s worried that the Senate will try to extend a House-passed bill cracking down on indecency on broadcast television to cover the other services.

Sanders notes that cable and satellite television and the Internet are services people pay for, and he says censoring them would violate basic notions of liberty.

He says he doesn’t want to see the Federal Communications Commission bleeping Tony Soprano or Jon Stewart.

Citing Bozell’s astonishing study that proved the existence of racy content on MTV, TownHall/Heritage Foundation wag Rebecca Hagelin points out that there is racy content on MTV.

However, while the salty language she decries was bleeped on MTV’s broadcasts, Hagelin, as a service to her conservative and easily-traumatized readers, has provided transcripts of the language behind the bleeps.

Nate: “She’s eating whipped cream off some dude’s [bleeped ‘f—ing’] chest right now!”

MTV still rockin’, TownHall.com.

U.S. Representatives, among them Arkansan Mike Ross, have introduced a bill that would scrub TV of ads for erectile-dysfunction cures.

“I can recall countless evenings I’ve spent at home with my wife and children, enjoying a good television program when suddenly, we are rudely interrupted by a distasteful, and frankly embarrassing advertisement,” Ross said.

The PTC and the AFA support the bill, which has thus far apparently only been reported in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. (Registration required; use Bugmenot.)