The FCC ...out of control? or on the right track?

[Jill Monroe]

has anyone besides me gotten TIRED of the FCC's over zealous scrutiny of television and radio? never before has TV and Radio been so stifled by the FCC and their out of touch, hypocritical standards of "what is decent".

the extreme over reaction to a breast...shows just how sexually repressed and hypocritical this country is. everybody has or will see someone else partially or fully nude at some point in their life...hell...how do you think babies get made? people gotta start by taking their clothes off LOL.

Janet did not set out to errode the the moral fiber of society , nor did she intend to scar anyone's mind. She was doing what she does best..entertaining and being sexy/provocative.

Now, the FCC and all these family/religious organizations are out en masse...claiming that movies like "saving private ryan" are indecent for broadcast, that spongebob squarepants is gay (how the hell can a sea sponge be gay!?) and all award shows are being broadcast on a delay in order to make sure that no 'indecent material' gets out on the airwaves. Radio stations are playing songs now that are so edited..you dont know what half the words are...and the play lists are becoming more and more homogenized (thanks to clear channel owning more than half the damn radio stations in the nation and they are in the FCC's back pocket due to their staunch republican associations) expression, creativity and free speech are being stifled...and with this neo conservative movement (a bunch of BS in my opinion) thats sweeping the nation...it seems that not too many people are concerned about it.

what do you all think?

[ZorCrow]

Well Madonna,

There is too much crap on television. I mean have you seen that "old spice" commercial with the woman shaking her money maker in tight leather pants selling deodarant? I mean what is the purpose of that? We have become too sexual on television and too much sex to our youth. I agree that folks are over reacting to Spongebob, and to Janet Jackson's breast. When you look at NFL games look at all the large breasts you see on the cheerleaders and sometimes the fans (camera men!).

There is hypocrisy we are a nation that spends 15 billion dollars a year on porn, that is more than we spend on nfl, mlb, nba and nhl combined. 900 million rentals in 2003 alone. A guy in a coat is not doing that. Net porn sites becoming so profitable that skin mags like Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler are in trouble. . We are obessed with sex.

But as for public airwaves that kids have access too, they need to clean up the radio as well as tv. I don't need to hear profanity when I listen to sports talk or any talk radio or a song. I don' tneed to hear vulgar songs about juvenile male pornographic fantasies or some woman calling herself b))))))h! I mean it's insulting. Look at the music in the 1960s "I wanna hold your hand" now we are at, "It's getting hot in here,
so take off all your clothes, I wanna hump you and your girlfriend." and "to the window to the walls to the sweat drops off my b____ and skeet (ejaculate) on these ho's (whores).

That is what we have come too. I think the FCC is being too soft Madonna on these clowns. We need 10 million dollar fines, we need to clean up the radio, and public non premuium channell television.

IMHO.

[Jill Monroe]

Zorcrow, i agree that not everything on television is "wholesome" but you know what? there's thing we have called free will . a person who deems a program distastefull could exercise his/her free will to get their ass up and CHANGE THE CHANNEL or even TURN OFF THE TV! with all the channels out there...(more than 500 depending on what type of program access you ahve) there is no reason for anyone to feel like they HAVE to watch any certain program if something about it offends their sensibilities.

the problem(s) are: parents are not doing their job to monitor what their children watch these days. they let the TV babysit their kids, people want to blame telelvision programs for their irresponsible behavior, and the religious right is gaining FAR TOO MUCH GROUND on influencing society's attitudes and public policies etc.

Television programming, no matter how provocative or whatever else...CANNOT be responsible for the supposed "moral decay" of society. If thats the case..then what does that say about us as a people? are we that easily brainwashed and impressionable? the mere thought of that is insulting and if people STOPPED spouting off about morals and jumping on this "neo conservatism" bandwagon and STARTED thinking for themselves and exercising their rights to censor what the TV's in their INDIVIDUAL HOMES is playing...then i think we'd be able to move on to figure out what REALLY IS (if anything) causing a moral decay in our society.

[ZorCrow]

I understand you are saying Madonna, I just wish there was more supervision in vulgarity that is exposed to the general public such as radio, billboards, and tv commercials.

[Jessica Hamby]

LOL... Janet did NOT intend to scar anyone.... hell, even I could tell she was JUST as surprised as the rest of us when she was exposed. :p

I think the FCC needs to take a trip over to Europe... and the rest of American society needs to GET A GRIP.

In a nation where we market thong underwear to our twelve years olds... we cant expect them to NOT know what sex is. Its DEFINITELY up to the parents to censor what they dont want their kids to see... THATS the main purpose behin tv show ratings, and movie ratings and such... nealry EVERYTHING now comes with an attached 'appropriate age' label... and people need to stop complaining about what is in the media and start reading the label.

As for advertisement.... well... time and time again, no matter how despicable it is to some people.... sex sells. We wont stop advertising companies from utilizing that... thats what makes money.... and money makes the world rotate, so some people are just going to have to swallow that with a spoonful of sugar.

American is far too 'under rug swept' about sexuality, imo. 7 yos cant understand sexuality... and so they shouldn't... but our girls are maturing at 11 and 12... and they SHOULD have a solid understanding of what exactly is going on... i think people forget that way back before we got the sense to wait a while, we used to marry our girls off at 12 and 13-- to have children and be adults... and that in SOME parts of the world... still do.

I've got three sisters hitting that age.... the power of the peer is even more clear now than it was when i was that age... my 12yo sister knows probably almost as much about sex as i do[im pretty damn sure-- she doesnt have first hand knowledge yet] these kids nowadays... they know a lot more than we credit them to... they swear and smoke and become sexually active at an alarmingly young age... but at this point... i think we need to realize that theres NOTHING we can do to stop that...

I agree with Farrah... america is horribly hypocritical... and the media cant be to blame for 'moral decay'. It CAN be persuasive... BUT... our kids CAN be taught the difference between tv and reality.... and they CAN be taught morality. we need to stop depending on our media to do that.... b/c its clear the folks behind the tv programming dont give a damn about our kids morality. Morality has NO PLACE in the business world and show business is the grittiest, most morality depraved biz of them all. THATS WHATS ENTERTAINING. the FCC needs to pull the stick out of their proverbial ass and start their own advertising... by telling the parents to do their jobs.

The important thing to emphasize is not that we are decaying morally... but instead to teach our youth the difference between reality and tv.... and that somethings are okay on tv that wouldnt be acceptable in real life. Violence, Sex, etc EXIST in the real world... not BECAUSE of media, but rather the other way around... it exists in media b/c it exists irl. We simply have to make sure our society KNOWS what is acceptable and what is inappropriate... if we can do that.... then we will be far better off than wasting all this brain power and money on trying to censor everything.

[ZorCrow]

The FCC has a duty, the FCC deal with broadcasts and public airwaves. Parent's can't do it all we do need government regulation on PUBLIC AIRWAVES period. We are in moral decay in America and we do need morality in business. The lack of morality in business has created such things as the Enron scandal and people losing their life savings and their retirement savings.

I think people in America need tolook at Europe why? For a region that is out of control morally and suffering for it, a region that encourages women to be as big as sluts as men and then complain about the social results? Europe is behind the times , America is the lead nation in foreign policy and in culture we actually still know what right and wrong is.

It is up to our government to ensure the values that this nation was founded on and that the founders of this great nation had to future generations. Too much ACLU political correctness causes more social despair. I agree the FCC needs to regulate the radio, and content on television (except pay channels if you pay for it like HBO or Showtime you know what you are getting).

[Anchovy]

I can see where you're coming from ZorCrow. I agree that there is just plain too much vulgarity on public airwaves. Not even just sex and violence, but the glorification of materialism and degredation of women. But it is NOT up to the US Government to worry about what your children see. It's up to the PARENTS. Personal Responsibility. Personal Responsibility. Personal Responsibility. That's my watchword. Get off of your ass and BE A PARENT.

Now I do agree that network television needs to clean up it's act, because anybody with bunny ears can pick up what they're putting out. And kids don't need to see Paris Hilton on top of a car rubbing herself to sell hamburgers. But when it comes to cable, I don't see the need to police, say Oxygen network or something. After all, you can make a choice not to HAVE cable. I know that's a foreign concept, but some people actually only have 6 tv channels. ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and my 2 PBS channels. That's it. That's all we've got at my parents house, and that's a choice my parents made. Because they COULD. And they're not going to try to tell ANYONE else what they can watch either, because that's NOT my folks choice to make.

Basically, I don't think that everything on TV is wholesome or good (I mean, watched FOX lately?) but it's not the government's place to try to clean it up. It's up the the networks and the veiwers.

Also: 'Binder, nobody really thought that Saving Private Ryan was inappropriate, the ABC affiliates in certain cities were just afraid they were going to get slapped with fines from the (&*^$^$#) FCC for the profanity and violence. Other than that, you're totally right. Titania: I don't think that we need to take anything Europe does as gospel. Just because they think it's good doesn't mean it is.