Saturday, June 02, 2007
For Your Protection
Last sunday I was watching TV it was about 2:00 AM I flipping through the channels and I started watching South Park. I like to watch cartoons, but it was not on Comedy Central I don't know what channel this was so I am watching TV and the screen goes blank. The words The scene where blah, blah, blah has been editted out for your protection. I was taken back a bit I had never actually seen something like this. I had heard words bleeped, or a voice over to replace the word, and of course the blur, but the entire scene was just gone for like five seconds that message appeared on the screen and then when it was gone the next scenes was on the TV. So what does that actually mean? Like I said it was 2:00 AM. What was the point, I think they removed the scene where Kenny eat some fecal matter. First of all it is a cartoon it is not real. I don't feel any more safe, and I have seen that episode before. I think I was okay. This however small it was disturbes me it is like the beggining of some george Orwell nightmare. Starts out small, then gradually grows. I just think if you don't want to watch something don't watch it, if you don't want your kids to watch something don't let them watch it. It really is that simple. I see things like this as very one sided. People have a problem with something and they try to force that down the throats of everyone else. All the parent groups, and religious groups want it only their way. That is wrong, and goes against what this nation is supposed to stand for. It is easy to not watch something, it is very hard to watch something that isn't allowed. You should all know the problem I have with rap and the overall hip-hop culture, but I in no way want it gone or to stop other people from listening to it or being apart of it. This is a free nation, please do as you please. I just think that stopping other people from partaking in something that you don't like then you are veering too close to facism. That is just the way I see it. What you do, watch, listen is none of my business, and vice versa. I just wish that people would stop forcing their morality down others throats, now don't get me wrong I will speak my mind, you can't stop me from doing that, but at the same time I will never try to force you to see it my way.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
That is bizarre. I've been watching reruns of Six Feet Under in which every other word is F)(*, sex is openly shown between heterosexual and homosexuals, plus we see maimed dead bodies. And I'm fine with that--that is why it is cable. There are parents who may not be careful with South Park because it is a cartoon, but anyone who knows the show should understand that it isn't Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Freedom of speech is evading. BTW, I cannot post any new entries on my blog because someone flagged it for objectionable content. So I am a little sensitive to this issue.
If it is on Cartoon network, then that is one thing, but otherwise, I think that this is getting a little out of hand.
If you don't like it, don't watch it…. Personal responsibility. People want to blame others for their problems. Why take the time to know what your kid is watching, when you can blame others and win in a law suite.
C-Dell, if you listen to Andrew Speaker and then his wife, they tell two different stories. I will believe the CDC and his wife before some guy who is trying not to get sued. But who knows what he was told. I have first hand experience with doctors saying one thing, then turning around and saying something very different. That is why I always tape record those conversations.
I don't trust our government; either party. It is up to us to determine what we want to watch, listen to, or read, not the government or some group, either on the right or left.
Great post
T
i like cartoons. i like south park as well. it can get offensive of course but you can always switch channels or switch it off.
Wow, that's bad. Orwellian indeed. Too bad you don't know which station did that - I'd say they deserve some nasty calls and letters.
I can understand not showing sex and violence to little kids, in fact I prefer it when they don't; but it's totally different for adults.
Permissiveness in US television standards seems cylcical. There are a number of TV shows (e.g. Hot L Baltimore, All in the Family from the 1970s and 1980s that would have to be re-edited to appear on TV.
The recent post Janet Jackson furor was seemingly against nudity, but it's effects went beyond that. Public television affiliates have since wrenched their hands figuring out what they can depict and say, and not--even if the content has serious literary, scientific or artistic merit.
The FCC has also proposed, within the last two years, extending guidelines to cable television stations. So probably they are toning down their acts in order not to raise Commission ire directed toward them.
The real problem with this is that often politically and ideologically dissident speech becomes entangled by these issues, and systematically excluded as "unfit for children."
Hey, happy birthday! Which day is it exactly? You're probably my son's age if you just finished the first year of college.
George Orwell and Ray Bradbury too. Fahrenheit 451 comes to mind. If you haven't seen the film you should, it's excellent.
To provide some sort of censorship to keep a little innocence for kids is good but, like you, I'm a big boy now and I can make my own decisions about what I do and don't watch.
Having said that for censorship for kids; where is the parental control? Surely it up to the parents to decide what their children see or do. But that requires parents to actually take responsibility for their children, something that appears to be lacking too.
I agree that parents should control what their children watch, but occasionally television or movie-makers sneak in something uncalled-for and surprising. Commercials can be really bad. I could be watching a cute show about animals with my kids, when suddenly an ad for erectile dysfunction or douches comes on. WTF?
I have never heard of anything like that before. It's Southpark. It's a cartoon. Can people not deal with something controversial? Now my blood is all boiling.
Hey, I wouldn't worry about that bad review. That woman is either a major poser (unlike you) or she is one angry, disturbed person. The forces of good probably cause her skin to blister.
I say, whatever... consider the source. You're doing a great job.
Maybe it was the episode where Mr. Garrison has sex with another male teacher. I saw the episode once, and it showed more than I would have expected to be shown on basic cable.
I also believe that for the most part, parents should sensor what their children watch. But if this is the episode that I'm thinking of, than I understand why that scene would have been blocked. I think it went unnoticed by sensors when it was first aired. It's a funny scene, BUT that particular scene is more explicit than the average South Park scenes.
If I were a parent who let my child watch South Park because overall I saw nothing to explicit for my child to watch, it would be impossible for me to predict that things would have been upped to a new level on this particular episode. So I'd understand why they would have blocked the scene, IF this was the episode I think it is.
Post a Comment