New at Reason
Kerry Howley reads the whole, sordid FCC report so your children won't ever have to.
Comments to "New at Reason":
Ethan | April 27, 2007, 3:43pm | #
Parents are the “first and last line of defense” against violence in televisionI am having a hard time with this one. What exactly are parents doing when they are acting as the "first line" of defense and what are they doing when acting as the "last line" of defense, and how do these two behaviors differ from one another? Perhaps the mom is the first line, and the dad is the last line when he gets home from work?
ed | April 27, 2007, 4:04pm | #
I only skimmed the piece, but the impression I was left with is: parents are stupid, and so are politicians. Is that about right?JW | April 27, 2007, 4:12pm | #
“According to a recent Zogby poll, 88% of parents did not use a V-chip or a cable blocking device.”Can we rephrse this to say that "88% of parents in a recent Zogby poll told the FCC kindly to fuck off. 'They're selling, but we're not buying,' one parent was quoted as saying."
Terry | April 27, 2007, 4:47pm | #
You know gang, I am not fucking around here.Sensible people(am I assuming correctly?) there is nothing to discuss here, only act.
We have to moblize the Libertarian militia, find these traitorous bastards, and tar and feather them with a warning that the next violation we will hang you.
For Americas sake it's long been past the time to step up.
Well?
jgray | April 27, 2007, 5:01pm | #
Ethan:surely its not too hard;
Without parents there will be no one to buy a TV, Cable, Tivo, etc. Parents control the remote, they control what their kids do, they can pick and choose programming or use the v-chip, whatever. parents have control over every image displayed on the TV in their home. And they can nix visits to other kid's houses whose parents are more laissez faire.
Brian | April 27, 2007, 5:19pm | #
I agree with the article whole-heartedly, but I think the bottom line not mentioned here is V-chips, ratings and lame-ass FCC reports are put into place because the FCC is lobbied so heavily by the group of folks that wants us to think no one knows how to pay attention to their kids (aka Christian right). Do you really think the FCC wants any type of programming blocked out? How many advertising dollars would go to waste? They've got too many messages to push to these kids to interfere with their viewing habits.Now, I don't have a problem with any of that. In my opinion every image on TV should be parentally guided whether it's harmful or not. As the article correctly states, it's never been proven, will never be proven because it cannot be proven that what kids see on TV dictates how they will behave. If they're going to behave badly, they'd do it whether they watched TV or not.
Good article. Just my 2 cents.
Pro Libertate | April 27, 2007, 5:37pm | #
Can we just go ahead and abolish the FCC now?JW,
President Jillette would, after appointing Howard Stern to the Commission for a week, just to torque a few people.
edna | April 27, 2007, 6:06pm | #
three words:the three stooges
advocates of a tv violence/meat world violence link need to explain why violent crime went up when the stooges largely disappeared from the airwaves.
Francisco Torres | April 27, 2007, 6:10pm | #
There is another, more Occam-friendly explanation for parents' ignorance of ratings and chips, but it is in no one’s interest to suggest that parents aren’t particularly concerned about the effects of Extreme Makeover or CSI.It is called Market Choice. If parents do not find the V-Chip that useful, it is foolish to assume they do not care or are too stupid to use it. Rather, they do not value it enough to place attention to it, which is just as valid as not wanting the Betamax system or the Ford Edsel.
biologist | April 27, 2007, 6:13pm | #
Can we get audio of Kerry reading the report?That would be sweet.
biologist | April 27, 2007, 6:23pm | #
additional request:when Kerry records her reading of the report, can she use a breathy, Marilyn Monroe voice?
she can?
fantastic.
Pro Libertate | April 27, 2007, 7:20pm | #
Did I just see the brewing of, perhaps...Taktix®,
Jillette/Teller '08
Why yes, yes you did.
You blind or something? | April 27, 2007, 7:51pm | #
Why only audio?Andy Levy | April 28, 2007, 5:39am | #
"I only skimmed the piece, but the impression I was left with is: parents are stupid, and so are politicians. Is that about right?"No, that's about wrong, Ed. The point was that politicians are stupid and politicians think parents are stupid. I mean, c'mon, I'm drunk as hell and I managed to suss that out...
As an aside, I'd love to see a study of what percentage of politicians with children use the V-Chip. My guess is it's roughly the same as the percentage of politicians whose children are in the military.
GUNS AND DOPE PARTY POSITION PAPER #23 | April 28, 2007, 2:23pm | #
Little Tony was sitting on a park bench munching on one candy bar afteranother. After the 6th candy bar, a man on the bench across from him said,
"Son, you know eating all that candy isn't good for you. It will give you
acne, rot your teeth, and make you fat."
"Little Tony replied, "My grandfather lived to be 107 years old."
The man asked, "Did your grandfather eat 6 candy bars at a time?"
Little Tony answered, "No, he minded his own fucking business."
When I was growing up, we had "the P chip" -- parents who actually parented, instead of leaving the job to the federal government.
Quiet_Desperation | April 29, 2007, 4:55am | #
Good timing.Next week I'll be releasing the results of my study titled "Large, Heavy Televisions And Their Impacts On Children"
Many HDTVs gave their all for this.
Jeremy Kareken | April 29, 2007, 12:39pm | #
As a parent who deeply cares about the mental well-being of my child, I plan on offering him only the finest in fuzzy-animals beating the living bejeezus out of each other. And now, because of DVR and DVDs I can offer him an unfettered menu of violence without the dietary horrors of commercials filled with corn syrup. Yes to violence. No to candy. Candy makes my child nuts, not tv violence.Could someone please email this article to Brent Bozell and Donald Wildmon (oops--he's only interested in wiping out sex)?