A racy Paris Hilton ad for fast food chain Carl’s Jr. will debut on Tuesday. The ad almost didn’t make it out of the editing room, as network execs were reportedly feeling a little Paris-shy. One said, “It couldn’t be more pornographic. It’s about as racy as I’ve seen.”
Interesting side note: Carl’s Jr. founder/owner Carl Karcher is a good ol’ right-winger.
This report comes from Agape Press:
…A pro-family activist says America’s largest retailer is helping to further the homosexual agenda of destroying the traditional family. Wal-Mart has announced its approval of a “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Associates” affinity group for employees. Some pro-family advocates believe is only a matter of time before this group demands same-sex partner health benefits, financial support for homosexual meetings, “pride” parades, and workshops.
Randy Sharp, special projects director for the American Family Association, is advising pro-family shoppers to think twice before patronizing a store that openly promotes the homosexual lifestyle. He says by embracing homosexuality, Wal-Mart is now pulling away from the ideals that have helped the retailer foster longtime positive relationships between customers and its neighborhood stores and allying the company with pro-homosexual interests.
“Wal-Mart’s decision is normalizing a very dangerous and unhealthy behavior,” Sharp warns concerned citizens, “and you should care because Wal-Mart is helping to advance [homosexual activists’] agenda, and that final agenda … is same-sex marriage – to destroy traditional marriage as between a man and woman.”
The AFA spokesman is encouraging Wal-Mart customers to voice their objection to the company’s endorsement of homosexuality. [Rusty Pugh]
The AFA apparently had no comment on Wal-Mart’s poverty wages, or on a report that claims that in 2003 California taxpayers forked over $32 million in health care costs for underinsured Wal-Mart employees.
But if they boycott Wal-Mart, where will middle America shop??
A Washington woman was recently notified by the State’s Department of Licensing that another driver was offended by her personalized license plate: “John 316.”
Brad Benfield with the State Department of Licensing said, “It appears from the complaint that somebody was not happy that a state issued license plate had a religious component.”
A Pierce County woman made the complaint, which reads in part: “I was offended that I have to be ‘prayed over’ by a license plate… What happened to keeping church and state separate?”
Government advocacy? Or, expression of personal opinion? Slippery slope, or epitome of stupidity?
From KOMO, SeaTac’s ABC affiliate.
The Carthage, MO, newspaper has jumped on the video-games-are-evil bandwagon. Apparently lacking for worthy local news (the category under which this story is filed), the Press actually invokes Satan — and throws in some Bozell for good measure.
If there were a sinister plot out there to turn every human being away from strong morals and a godly lifestyle, I’d almost believe that plot starts with subverting children.
Oh, wait, there is…and the plot doesn’t just start with subverting children, the plot is all about subverting children. If Satan can twist a child’s morals early in life, not only will that child grow to live outside of God’s will, but will teach his or her own children those same wrong things. And then Satan has won not only one child, but two generations, and who knows how much.
Don’t believe that’s what’s going on? Check this out…
A few months ago the Parents Television Council (PTC) released its fourth comprehensive study on their Web site www.parentstv.org, examining the advertising practices of the six broadcast networks – ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, WB and UPN. The study found that children continue to be targeted by studios and video game publishers in their advertising of R-rated films and M-rated video games on network television. The study also found that TV advertisements for adult-rated entertainment are reaching children during the “family hour” – the first hour of prime time – more frequently today than a year ago.
Who said journalism was in trouble?
From the Carthage Press.
The Oklahoma legislature passed a resolution last week that amounts to extortion of public libraries: Block children’s access of gay-themed children’s books, or else. (The ‘else’ in this case — “or else we’ll bankrupt you.")
“We’re not going to cut funding to the (overall) library system,” resolution sponsor Sally Kern said. But the House Subcommittee on Education will study ways to bypass [funding to] libraries if they will not comply, its vice chairwoman said.
Rep. Tad Jones, R-Claremore, who heads the education subcommittee, said Friday that members will explore ways that certain libraries could be stopped from sharing in state budget increases.
(From “Gay book issue may get tied to funds,” Tulsa World, May 14, 2005; content available online only to paid subscribers.)
In another report, Kern said, “If the libraries do not comply with what the Legislature feels is the prevailing community standard of our towns and cities and entire state, then yes, there is a possibility that they will not receive extra funding.”
The Tulsa library system has acquiesced, according to KOTV. (Note to KOTV: Spell check!)
So there you have it. The legislature is threatening to punish libraries that don’t follow political marching orders.
But where’s the outrage?
Of all of Oklahoma’s newspapers, only one has registered an editorial complaint against the legislature’s censorious strong-arming. The Claremore Progress — published in Will Rogers’ hometown — posted an editorial titled “Beware of Censorship.” But the Claremore editors are no Will Rogers — and they’re certainly no Tom Joad. Their warning against the ills of censorship is toothless and wet-noodlish.
Regular television and the Internet are overrun with homosexual themes and other presentations that, in fact, parents should supervise and have every right to ban. That’s family business. Not the legislature’s.
What is one person’s sin often is another’s passion. Where is the Legislature’s stop sign on deciding morals?
This newspaper certainly supports the free speech First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution that precludes censorship. The question about what is being censored is a wholly different issue.
The more mature, forward thinking Senate surely would block any such precipitous action. Senate Appropriations chair Johnnie Crutchfield, D-Ardmore, said he opposes “policy attachment to appropriations bills.” Instead he said “substantive bills” should deal with such issues.
Crutchfield is right. So is the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Crutchfield is right? Crutchfield’s statement implied that the hide-’em-or-else resolution should be codified by a “substantive bill.”
Where’s the outrage? Where’s the press? Where’s the careful examination of the consequences of shielding kids from kids’ books?
It ain’t in Oklahoma.
The Claremore Progress editorial has, to date, received one reader comment:
1st amendment a touchy subject? Could you please tell your readers when free speech became a taxpayer funded right? Would you support books that call for the burning and murder of editors? Under your version of free speech it would be ok. I support Tad and his ideas of morals. Why should any parent be able to ban a television show only to have their child go to school and be able to check out a book on any subject known to mankind? Morals is the foundation of a decent and good society. Our government should promote them, even if our local newspaper just can’t muster the guts to.
Palm Beach Post editorial writer Elisa Cramer recently addressed high school journalism students at an awards banquet. Her speech is reprinted in the Post.
Here’s hoping a copy of it is soon pasted in every classroom in every school in every city.
She knows what free speech is about.
As Americans, we get to disagree. We get to speak, write, sing, preach, pray, photograph and draw what we want. We get to share it with others, and if they don’t like it, they get to disagree with it. If they like it, they get to celebrate it. Loudly. Proudly. Quietly. Privately.
I hope you will continue to value the First Amendment and have the courage to defend the right of expression, even when it’s cast in a style that is not your own, cloaked in a belief that you do not share, sung to a tune you do not consider melodious. And may you celebrate all of the beauty, all of the insight, all of the strength, all of the knowledge you gather from viewing art, listening to music, reading literature, sharing written words, voicing your opinions. That option, that privilege, that right… That is the First Amendment.
Read the lot of it in the Palm Beach Post.
In a Baltimore Sun article ostensibly reviewing Steven Johnson’s book, Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, the Sun consults PTC director of “research” Melissa Caldwell.
She draws a profoundly simplistic distinction between kids today and kids in the Leave It to Beaver era.
She said shows like Leave It to Beaver, even if they were criticized for their simplicity, had a moral with each episode.
That’s different today, Caldwell said.
“A kid who watches prime-time TV today is more likely to take away ideas that ‘I need to be sexually active at a young age to fit in or wear a certain kind of clothing or belong to a certain social or peer group.’ ”
Man, is your kid stupid!
In the Baltimore Sun.
The New York Daily News has a sneak peek at what popular PBS shows will look like post-Tomlinson.
A few shining examples:
Frontline: The pros and pros of Alaskan drilling.
Now with Bill Moyers: Global Cooling.
Charlie Rose: Subbing for Charlie, Laura Bush probes Donald Rumsfeld about his controversial invasion of the White House cookie jar. Cameo appearance by what appears to be Charlie Rose, rolled up in a rug.
Nova: Our 6,000-year-old Earth. Tour the magnificent Grand Canyon, the result of Noah’s flood, with host Ralph Reed.
Arthur: When Arthur’s friend Muffy loses her first tooth, the tooth fairy puts $173,000 of tax relief under the family’s Lexus.
Teletubbies: Tinky-Winky is publicly flogged after admitting he and SpongeBob were subliminally seducing preschoolers into a life of gay debauchery and singing.
The Ever-More-Frugal Gourmet: “Wal-Mart Workers Festive Feast:” Bean casserole with crispy bean topping. Side dish: Beans. Dessert: Crispy bean topping flambé.
Remember: This is Pledge Week. Viewers are asked to pledge abstinence until marriage.
Laugh until you cry: NY Daily News.
And then there’s Arkansas….
Read the Arkansas News Bureau on Tomlinson and PBS.
Last summer, conservative wag Cal Thomas chatted with Bill Moyers about gay marriage. He resolutely concluded that the gay marriage issue indicates “the prophecy of the end times.”
Is PBS liberal? Does it need an injection of GOP?
Reports the Globe,
At the end of the interview Moyers says: “I appreciate very much your joining us. We will never agree. We’ll never settle this. But in a democracy, I hope we can keep discussing it in a civil way.”
And Thomas replies: ‘’Thanks, Bill. You do it better than anybody.”
This is the broken system? Folks like Bozell think that Moyers was handed “an hour every week to bash conservatives.”
The Globe ends with a rallying cry for fans of the network.
Gunning for PBS seems a lot like a trumped-up battle in the culture wars that’s meant to distract people or make the case for ending federal funding of public broadcasting – which in 2004 supplied 24 percent, some $80 million, of its $333 million in revenues. Ending federal funding would be a mistake. Public broadcasting is one of the few serious free forums for quality programs. Public broadcasters provide educational services, access for deaf and blind viewers, high-definition television broadcasts, and air time for locally produced shows such as ‘’Nova” and ‘’Antiques Roadshow.”
Public broadcasting needs public support. Viewers must condemn politicized attacks on a valuable public asset.
From the Boston Globe.
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