e-Claire

Erosion

Here's another angle on the Broadcast "Decency" Enforcement Act of 2004. It only applies to over-the-air television and radio stations. There are no restrictions in it on Cable or Satellite radio and TV. Apparently the Senate version will attempt to address the concentration of control of local radio stations into the hands of fewer conglomerates [monopolies??]. Those companies, like Clear Channel, are significantly less responsive to local concerns and regional differences because they program one show and feed it to the whole nation. How that big company could imagine that Howard Stern would be a big seller in the Bible Belt demonstrates their stupefying inability to travel beyond 5th Avenue and 48th Street. I'm not even attempting to defend the likes of that "Love Sponge" pants creature or Stern -- Howard Stern is a moron -- Bevis and Butthead held prisoner in a middle-aged body. Yech. What do I do with my distaste? I ignore them. Maybe if some particularly icky piece of dreck of theirs comes to my attention I will contact a sponsor and stop buying that product. But I realize that they have a vast audience of 13 year olds trapped in 30-something bodies who are not open to hearing my reasoned distaste. They like their morning dose of, "huh huh huh; you said 'boobie' huh huh huh." I can't change that. More important: it is none of my business. I hear the cry, "but what if my 6 year old is listening? I don't want to have to explain Janet Jackson's boob or the sexual nuances of Will and Grace to my 6 year old." Lookie there: the Righties are borrowing the Lefties raison d' oppression flag -- "for the children." I don't know about you, but me -- I don't want to live in a world built for 6 year olds. It is not interesting or challenging to me at age mumble. They can't even spell "nuance" and depth is over their heads. In particular, I don't want to live in this culture's over-sentimentalized, Disney-fied version of childhood. It irritated me as a kid and it repels me now. 6 year olds really should be in bed before 8 pm and are best served by parents who don't allow them to listen to Howard Stern or play Grand Theft Auto. To all those "parents" who want to restrict my choices to protect their 6 year olds I ask, "What the fuck -- yes, "fuck" -- are you doing failing to distinguish for your child things that are *for grown-ups* from things that are *for children*?!?!? That is the job you signed on for when you chose to have children -- to protect them until you have given them the tools to evaluate and make choices in the grown-up world. By trying to child-proof the world you are doing them, and everyone, a disservice. Your job is to world-proof your child." **[Although I think there are plenty of repulsive, harmful things in so-called "children's programming," that is a rant for another day.]

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