SpeakSpeak News

Speaking to an Arkansas Rotary Club, Fox TV President Ed Wilson expressed concern about the FCC crackdown on so-called indecency.

Wilson said he is personally more conservative with what he would like to show on television, [ while] others at the network like to push the envelope. In the end, he said he believes networks must give viewers information about how they can decide for themselves what’s suitable for themselves and their families to watch.

“They put on ‘off’ button on televisions for a reason,” Wilson said, adding that parents must be the first line of defense in guarding against indecency. He said devices such as the V-chip, which are included in modern televisions and can be programmed to filter certain content, are tools parents should use.

From ArkansasBusiness.com

Reminding us that we’ve got keep our noses to our collective grindstone, the Columbia Journalism Review analyzes the indecency battles on the horizon. (via Media Savvy)

As for the more headline-friendly issue of fines for indecent content, [new chair Kevin] Martin has traditionally taken a much harder line. As a commissioner, he frequently criticized Powell’s fines as being too lenient. The New York Times noted recently that Martin “has taken the most aggressive approach in indecency cases, dissenting from a series of opinions in which the agency either found no violation or did not issue what he believed was a significant enough punishment.” This, of course, has made him popular with a vocal minority of conservative activist groups, particularly the Parents Television Council (PTC).

Don’t let the “vocal minority” win.

Being in the majority means nothing if you don’t speak up.

Remind Kevin Martin that we’re out here, and that his job is to weigh the standards of the community. We are the community.

Speak up!

Our friend Jonathan Rintels at the Center for Creative Voices in the Media points to an examination of the relationship between media ownership and consumer complaints.

Linking Concentration and Indecency

An Arvada, CO, school district has prohibited the school newspaper from running articles discussing birth control and STDs – including an article that claimed abstinence as the only foolproof form of birth control.

The school says the issue was not censorship, but miscommunication.

In the Denver Post.

Journalists in Nepal are rallying in the streets, demanding an end to press censorship and the release of imprisoned journalists. The Nepalese press has been in a state of turmoil since the King deposed his government and claimed absolute power in early February.

The state-run newspaper called the protests “unjustifiable journalistic perversion.”

In the Hindustan Times.

1) Volcanoes = blasphemous
2) Crawford, TX = hip & vibrant
3) UN = protector of possibly pipsqueakish people
4) MTV = the abstinence channel

These are the new rules of the road. Study up at the LA Times.

Political storm cloud hangs over Hollywood

In a Christian Science Monitor op-ed, Parents Television Council prez Brent Bozell restates his case. Man, he is really proud of that Time Magazine article.

Bozell points out, again, that Hollywood is “out of touch” with most Americans. This is, of course, a stark change from Hollywood’s Golden Era. Back then, when Cary Grant wore a tuxedo to breakfast and every Katherine Hepburn character lived in a New York penthouse apartment, Hollywood was very definitely in-touch.

And think back to the innocuous sitcom years, the years that Bozell seems to want to want to revisit in the wayback machine. Jeannie and Major Nelson? A little slice of America wrapped up in a 20″ box. Green Acres and the Beverly Hillbillies? Why, all Americans have a little corn pone in their souls. And what about The Flying Nun? Now that was wholesome, realistic entertainment. Hollywood sure was in touch back then.

Note to Bozell: Hollywood makes a business of staying in touch. Hollywood exists, in fact, to make a business. If 30 million people didn’t watch CSI every week, CBS would re-tool the series and make it more Highway to Heaven-ish.

There’s a reason that Desperate Housewives is currently the most-watched show. That reason is not that American women are seeking instruction on how to release their inner slut. The reason is that we like to be entertained. We like to take our mind off our own dreary lives and – if only for an hour – immerse ourselves in a life we probably will never lead. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Bozell, Hollywood is not out of touch. You are.

Ahem. Anyhow, read Bozell’s piece in the CSM.

Hollywood, do you hear America griping?