02/11/2004: 
That's Entertainment?
Censorshit Rears It's Ugly Head Once More
a rant by santo26
As a self- confessed fan of the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots, the last thing on my mind Super Bowl Sunday was Janet Jackson's breast. Although I thought it was funny at the time, Adam Vinatieri's heroics pushed it out of my mind. I had no idea until the next day how this little display made more of an impact on everyone else than the Patriot's win. Now it seems, FCC Chairman (and Son of Colin) Michael Powell is hopping mad and so is Congress. Republicans and Democrats are foaming at the mouth, and censorship is on their minds. The proposals include one sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., that would raise fines for violating broadcast standards from $27,500 per incident to $275,000 per incident, and another introduced by Reps. Doug Ose, R-Calif., and Lamar Smith, R-Texas, which would codify broadcasting certain dirty words as violations of federal law. Censorship is one of those boilerplate issues that both parties seem to agree on. Unfortunately, censorship is one of the issues that gets me going as well- I can't stand to see it happen.
What is interesting here is that not only is MTV, that self- appointed guardian of free speech in the past, is rolling over and playing dead, showing their racier videos after hours. It is interesting to note that not only does Viacom own MTV, it also owns CBS, UPN, Paramount Pictures, and Infinity Broadcasting, home of free- speech advocate Howard Stern. What do you do when your flagship conservative network offends little Johnny and Jill courtesy of your ultra- liberal racy media arm? There will be lots of hearings about this in Congress, and lots of big media execs will be called on the carpet.
All this because of a boobie. God Bless America.
